Coalition airpower integrated with coalition ground forces in Iraq and International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan during operations June 15, according to Combined Air and Space Operations Center officials here.
The Pentagon’s latest sob story about having to borrow from its main budget in order to pay for the Iraq war may sound dramatic.
Today, Bombardier Aerospace announced that the government of Malaysia has placed a firm order for two Bombardier 415 multipurpose amphibious aircraft (Bombardier 415MP) for the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).
Iran said on Saturday its answer to an offer from world powers over its nuclear programme would depend on how the West responds to an Iranian package Tehran put forward last month.
IAI/MBT Missiles Division will present its family of laser guided weapons and will introduce an advanced operational concept for network-centric laser guided warfare at Eurosatory 2008 (Paris, France).
The Indian Navy has virtually written off the naval variant of the advanced light helicopter (ALH), Dhruv, saying it has failed to meet basic operational requirements.
Alliant Techsystems announced today that it has received $97 million in follow-on production and new contracts for tactical and training tank ammunition from the U.S. Army.
The successful first flight of a supersonic fighter jet, the next generation of Navy and RAF jump-jets, took place on 11 June at Lockheed Martin's Texas plant.
The Defence Ministers of the Strategic Airlift Capability nations met at NATO Headquarters to review progress and map the way forward to meet the goal of receiving the first aircraft in November 2008.
Reuters and several other media outlets are reporting, this afternoon, on a Boeing corporation filing before the Government Accountability Office concerning word from the Air Force that it had slightly miscalculated what is known as the Most Probable Life Cycle Cost of Boeing's tanker design and the Northrop Grumman KC-45.
With BAE Systems test pilot Graham Tomlinson at the controls, the first short take off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the F-35 Lightning II has taken to the skies above Fort Worth, Texas, for the first time.
AgustaWestland and Kanematsu Corporation are pleased to announce they have been awarded a contract by the Japan National Police Agency (JNPA) to supply a further five AW109 Power Law Enforcement Helicopters as part of an on-going program to modernise the Police helicopter fleet.
We dont have any inside track on the Government Accountability Offices decision this week about the Boeing protest of the airborne tanker contract award to Northrop Grumman, but here are some of the possible pitfalls no matter which way the GAO rules. (If you know something about the protest and want to tell us before it's officially released, email me at colin.clark@military-inc.com. No one will know where it came from.)
If the protest is denied, Boeings supporters in Congress are clearly prepared to try and make life as miserable for the Pentagon as possible. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), a senior member on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee and one of Boeings biggest boosters on the Hill, made it clear after Thursdays meeting of the House Aerospace Caucus that he was working hand in glove with Rep. John Murtha (D-Penn.), dean of the defense subcommittee, to come up with creative ways to stymie Northrop. Although single members such as these can cause heartache and heartburn, I think the relative quiet of most senators (aside from the two Washington state lawmakers) on the issue indicates that barring some pretty spectacular goof by the Air Force contracting folks Northrop will probably get the contract through the appropriations and authorization processes
In addition to the congressional angle, there are enormous allied industrial cooperation issues at stake. The award of the contract to Northrop was seen as a bold and welcome move by the Air Force to include allied companies on truly major contracts.
Taking it away now either through congressional action or by reopening the bid as a result of the protest decision would be read as a slap in the face of NATO allies and raise questions about the viability of the United States as a defense industrial partner. As one defense analyst, who has been in the thick of the contract award process, told me this afternoon, any American attending the Farnborough Air Show in mid-July will need an armed guard should the Northrop-EADS team be denied the contract.
-- Colin Clark
Recently much attention is being given to the topic of cyber warfare and rightfully so. Our computers and networks are under continuous attack from all over the world. The level of sophistication of these attacks and the quality of the code written to perform these attacks both have raised significantly in the past year. Experts agree we have entered a new era of warfare and are transitioning from bombs and bullets to bits and bytes.
In January two classified presidential directives were signed related to defending the country against cyber attacks. At that time the price tag was estimated at $6 billion. In mid May the price tag was revised and believed to be $17 billion. Now, the price has risen again to be $30 billion. That is a big pot of money by anyone's standards. So the question is, where will this money be spent? Increasing cyber defense will require investment in Research and Development as well as in existing technology and services. The first and most critical activity will be to fortify current systems against known cyber threats.
Spending Allocation:
The R&D efforts will focus on near term delivery of advanced defensive capabilities (like behavioral modeling) of software processes and transaction to evaluate if they pose a threat to the system. Additionally, advanced modeling capabilities are required for evolving defenses and investigative activities. Advanced modeling will be used to certify and authenticate chips, hardware and software to be authentic and free of malicious code. One of the most promising capabilities centers on the development of a "Digital DNA" database repository. The ultimate goal of this work is the same as with current DNA forensics - to identify the perpetrators of the assault. Most cyber attacks leave behind forensic evidence that can be used to assess the capabilities of the attacker, understand the implications of the attack and to create defensive measure to guard against this type attack in the future. With all the attacks that have taken place, there is significant intelligence out there about techniques, cyber weapons, and strategies that have been used in these cyber assaults. Analysis of this evidence can create Digital DNA which could also help to identify the source of the malicious code and potentially lead to the attacker.
ASDF represents the four Digital DNA characteristic sets.
A = attributes, abilities, abstraction, architecture, assembly, adaptation
S = style, signatures, syntax, structure, source, specification, scope
D = demographics, delivery, development, discipline, data, design
F = functions, features, faults, formidability, fields, forms, factors
There are currently over a million pieces of malware. On average there are approximately 200 new computer viruses released monthly, so the raw cyber DNA materials are not in short supply. The potential use and value of the Digital DNA repository will increase with every single entry and the analysis of attacks. According to a source close to the Digital DNA project, the repository is currently in its infancy, it continues to grow and mature with the knowledge gained from each cyber attack. John Foley, CEO of Defcomm1 and former CEO of Vigilant Minds a leading managed security services provider said, "Much like the human genome project, Digital DNA will basically fingerprint the technical and human factors behind the malicious software and attacks." Security experts believe that Digital DNA type data is a critical component and required to fight cyber attacks and defend systems.
They've sure earned their keep...Hooah Army!
Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, the United States Army was established to defend our Nation. From the Revolutionary War to the Global War on Terror, our Soldiers remain Army Strong with a deep commitment to our core values and beliefs. This 233rd birthday commemorates Americas Army Soldiers, Families and Civilians who are achieving a level of excellence that is truly Army Strong both here and abroad. Their willingness to sacrifice to build a better future for others and to preserve our way of life is without a doubt, the Strength of our Nation.
And a little history...
The June 14 date is when Congress adopted "the American continental army" after reaching a consensus position in The Committee of the Whole. This procedure and the desire for secrecy account for the sparseness of the official journal entries for the day. The record indicates only that Congress undertook to raise ten companies of riflemen, approved an enlistment form for them, and appointed a committee (including Washington and Schuyler) to draft rules and regulations for the government of the army. The delegates' correspondence, diaries, and subsequent actions make it clear that they really did much more. They also accepted responsibility for the existing New England troops and forces requested for the defense of the various points in New York. The former were believed to total 10,000 men; the latter, both New Yorkers and Connecticut men, another 5,000.
At least some members of Congress assumed from the beginning that this force would be expanded. That expansion, in the form of increased troop ceilings at Boston, came very rapidly as better information arrived regarding the actual numbers of New England troops. By the third week in June delegates were referring to 15,000 at Boston. When on 19 June Congress requested the governments of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire to forward to Boston "such of the forces as are already embodied, towards their quotas of the troops agreed to be raised by the New England Colonies," it gave a clear indication of its intent to adopt the regional army. Discussions the next day indicated that Congress was prepared to support a force at Boston twice the size of the British garrison, and that it was unwilling to order any existing units to be disbanded. By the first week in July delegates were referring to a total at Boston that was edging toward 20.000. Maximum strengths for the forces both in Massachusetts and New York were finally established on 21 and 22 July, when solid information was on hand. These were set, respectively, at 22,000 and 5,000 men, a total nearly double that envisioned on 14 June.
The "expert riflemen" authorized on 14 June were the first units raised directly as Continentals. Congress intended to have the ten companies serve as a light infantry force for the Boston siege. At the same time it symbolically extended military participation beyond New England by allocating 6 of the companies to Pennsylvania, 2 to Maryland, and 2 to Virginia. Each company would have a captain, 3 lieutenants, 4 sergeants, 4 corporals, a drummer (or horn player), and 68 privates. The enlistment period was set at one year, the norm for the earlier Provincials, a period that would expire on 1 July 1776.
-- Christian
With his decision to tap Gen. Norton Schwartz to be the next Air Force chief of staff, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has done two things.
First, he has smashed an Air Force culture ceiling by putting into the top job a pilot who does not come out of the fighter or bomber community.
Second, Gates has put into place someone who can help heal the rift between the Air Force and the Army, one that has grown in recent years over the Air Force's heavy-handed move to take ownership of the Joint Cargo Aircraft -- originally an Army program -- its seeming stinginess in getting to ground commanders badly-needed UAV assets and the service's lack of interest in sending Airmen to help out on Army missions.
"A couple of things about 'Norty' Schwartz that a lot of folks didn't realize [before] - he spent a lot of time in the special ops arena," said a retired four-star who, like Schwartz, once headed U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base, Ill. "And any of our blue suit guys who have spent time in the special ops arena have a tendency to be closer to our Army brethren and others. I think that's a positive thing."
According to several former field and general Air Force officers, there does need to be some fence-mending after the last five or six years.
Terry Stevens, a retired colonel and personnel officer familiar with Air Force manpower and budget issues, said it was Moseley who fought the "in-lieu-of" program that helped the Army flesh out its ranks in Iraq and Afghanistan with Airmen. Moseley also balked at aggressively getting unmanned aerial vehicles into theater until Gates and Congress recently insisted he deploy them.
And at a time when Air Force missions around the world already were stretching its personnel thin, Moseley ordered a force restructuring that envisioned cutting 40,000 positions so that the money could be redirected to weapons programs such as the F-22 Raptor.
Taken together with the more widely known controversies -- including nuclear weapon snafus, corruption scandals and impolitic budget manipulations -- Moseley was seen as the head of a service with serious problems.
"I believe that General Moseley is an honorable man with the best interest of the Air Force in his heart, but he was not as politically aware as he should have been," Stevens said. "He also couldn't seem to see the big picture from the Department of Defense's perspective."
Another retiree, a former wing commander speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Air Force had become estranged from everyone, including its own people.
"Over the last five or six years, the Air Force has continued to lose credibility on the Hill, lose credibility with the Joint Chiefs and with the other service chiefs, and it lost credibility with the Airmen whose feet are on the ramp," he said. "I'm pleased to see that Gates is cleaning house."
Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Weaver, a former director of the Air National Guard who flew and commanded fighter and mobility units, said Schwartz would be "a great leader."
Schwartz, Weaver said, was Air Force director of operations at the Pentagon for several years under Donald Rumsfeld's tenure, which Weaver said is a testament to Schwartz's "strong character and strength."
"I think he'll be able to calm the storm here [in Washington] and move things forward," Weaver added.
Weaver also believes that Gates' decision to move Gen. Duncan McNabb -- currently the deputy Air Force chief of staff -- to take over Schwartz' command is a smart move for the Air Force and one that will make McNabb personally happy.
"I think Duncan probably has a smile on his face from ear to ear going back to [Scott]," Weaver said. That's because McNabb, until assigned to the Pentagon last year, had been commander of Air Mobility Command, a job McNabb loved. McNabb has been a transport pilot throughout his career.
"He always said the greatest job in the world was commanding AMC," Weaver said. "He did a fantastic job there." McNabb also made friends on Capital Hill during his time at the Pentagon and during past testimony he has given to congressmen, Weaver said.
"The people love him on the Hill. He's extremely credible," Weaver said. "I'm thinking that of anybody, if they're going to tap Schwartz for chief of staff, they needed somebody who, as we go forward in the new tanker area we've got to have somebody [at Transcom] who really knows mobility very well. And McNabb knows it better than anybody. He's very good and it will be a new team in the Pentagon."
Taking McNabb's place at the Pentagon will be Lt. Gen. William Fraser III, a bomber pilot who had been in line to take over Transcom if time and circumstance had not scuttled Schwartz's original plan to retire.
With his rise to chief of staff, Schwartz is the first to break the fighter/bomber pilot mafia's hold on the top uniformed job. Not only does he come to the job with mobility background, but in Air Force helicopters as well.
He has flown MC-130 Combat Talons and MH-53 Pave Lows and MH-60 Blackhawk special ops helos, and his operations background goes back to the final days of Vietnam. At the time, he was a crew member taking part in the 1975 airlift evacuation of Saigon. By 1991 he was chief of staff of the Joint Special Operations Task Force for Northern Iraq during the first Gulf War.
-- Bryant Jordan
Its been an entire fiscal year since the Groundbased Midcourse [missile] Defense system underwent a flight test, a congressional aide told me this morning. That failure of the Missile Defense Agency to perform tests for an entire fiscal year has got both Republican and Democratic staff and lawmakers pretty warm under the collar. The congressional aide told me this morning that we are troubled because this appears to be a sign of problems with management at MDA.
The proximate cause of this unhappiness is the latest cancellation of a GMD test known as FTG-04, scheduled for July. The congressional aide says that a third tier supplier supplied a telemetry unit with an improperly soldered motherboard. Since MDA would not have been able to gather any data about the scheduled test even if everything else worked as planned the agency decided to cancel the scheduled test.
The Center for Defense Informations Victoria Samson, who watches MDA like a hawk, sent me an analysis this morning saying that this latest goof is alarming because it appears to raise questions about the GMD interceptors reliability not true, according to the congressional aide and because it has become one of many missile defense tests that have been called off That is absolutely true, said the congressional aide, who ticked off a list of GMD tests since 2001 six hits; one miss; one no-test, two tests without interceptors.
Army Lt. Gen. Kevin Campbell, head of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Ala., said this morning that it is true that there has not been enough realistic testing of GMD in terms of countermeasures and interceptors, but he added that he feels they are now on the right track. The congressional aide did not disagree with Campbells statement, but said MDA has not done enough testing of the basic system, let alone countermeasures and interceptors.
Campbell also mentioned at the breakfast sponsored by the National Defense University that there is increasing recognition that much more ammunition needs to be bought for the THAAD and Aegis systems. The congressional aide said this came out of the Future Capabilities Mix study recently completed by the Joint Staff. Look for an amendment to be introduced in the Senate to restore some of the $400 million cut from MDA when the defense authorization bill is considered by the whole Senate, probably next week. The amendment will argue this money should be used to buy more missiles for these two systems.
-- Colin Clark
Defense Tech (and personal) friends Sharon Weinberger and Nathan Hodge are being interviewed on the NPR program Fresh Air right now. They're discussing their new book A Nuclear Family Vacation, a world tour of nuclear test sites, labs and missile silos.
Go to www.wamu.org and listen live.
Bravo Nathan and Sharon!
-- Christian
Pratt & Whitney's F135 short-takeoff/vertical-landing (STOVL) propulsion system powered the F-35B Lightning II's first flight test today in Fort Worth, Texas.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. today delivered the 30th UH-60M BLACK HAWK helicopter to the U.S. Army for the 4-101 Assault Battalion, making it the First Unit Equipped (FUE) with the aircraft. Sikorsky is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp.
The Boeing Company in partnership with ImSAR and Insitu Inc., achieved a major milestone in May with the real-time processing of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data aboard a ScanEagle unmanned aircraft (UA) equipped with a standard inertially stabilized electro-optical (EO) camera.
A six-member Egyptian Defence Delegation led by Maj Gen Mohamed Mohsen Saad El Shazly, Deputy Chief of Operation Authority of the Egyptian Armed Forces, called on the Minister of State for Defence Dr. MM Pallam Raju here today.
A flight of Aggressor F-15 Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons fly in formation June 5 over the Nevada Test and Training Range. The jets are assigned to the 64th and 65th Aggressor squadrons at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd will release its Iron Dome defense system against short range artillery rockets at Eurosatory 2008 in Paris next week.
The Russian town of Pochep is home to a massive stockpile of chemical weapons, some decades old. Too dangerous to move, Germany is helping build a facility in the town which will destroy the arsenal.
Following a year-long refit, HMS St Albans is ready to take to the water again for sea trials which will put the multi million pound raft of upgrades through their paces.
EADS Defence & Security (DS) will carry out the modernization programme of four Harrier AV-8B "Day Attack" aircraft of the Spanish Navy.
The United States insisted Thursday that its forces were retaliating against a "hostile act" when an air strike killed 11 Pakistani soldiers on the murky border with Afghanistan.
Following 90 days of Lorient-based trials, KD Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first DCNS-designed Scorpene submarine for the Royal Malaysian Navy, has now returned to Cherbourg for a post-trials refit.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he is pleased with the early results from a panel looking into intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets.
The Stamford Advocate is reporting today a change of heart for Connecticut lawmakers who sent a letter to President George W. Bush objecting to Northrop Grumman's contract to build America's next generation of aerial refueling tankers.
The Boeing Company today announced it has successfully flight-tested an electro-optical/infrared targeting pod system designed for the B-1 bomber.
A senior Senate lawmaker, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), told me this morning that he believes the Air Force suffers from systemic problems and must examine how it buys weapons, how it manages its forces and perhaps rebuild its long-term strategy in the face of todays changing international situation.
Sessions a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and ranking member of its strategic forces subcommittee, said he and his colleagues arent certain how to proceed yet to fix the service.
Sessions did praise Gates for his actions in sacking Air Force Secretary Mike Wynne and Chief of Staff Mike Moseley, noting he had helped reestablish personal responsibility among senior leaders.
A congressional source, asked about the likelihood that Congress might undertake a probing look at the Air Force to try and figure out what must be done to rebuild the service said any action was unlikely before the election. Senior lawmakers are already being drawn into daily management of the campaign message wars. And senators such as Sessions, while eager to do the right thing, will find it difficult to muster support from their colleagues for a bipartisan effort such as this would require.
Sessions comments came the day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates made extraordinary visits -- well intentioned and well executed to Air Force commands to deliver the message that he believes the service matters and has his support and to give service officials the chance to ask him questions face-to-face. One of the most interesting exchanges shed some bright light on just how much far apart are the secretary and the Air Force.
Gates, flying to Colorado Springs, Colo., told reporters that he took the opportunity of a question about the F-22s to address the speculation that, in truth, these changes were due to disagreements over the F-22. And I said that that was not true, that in fact that issue had been settled for some weeks. And that I had essentially made the decision that we would allocate enough money to keep the production line open so that the next administration could decide on the balance between buying more F-22s and buying more joint-strike fighters. And I thought that that was a significant procurement decision that ought not be made in the last six or seven months of an administration. You can imagine how much the Air Force officers believed that, no matter how true it is. The gap is so wide that even gates spokesman, Geoff Morrell, felt compelled to tell reporters that despite rumors: the F-22 issue had nothing to do with the secretary's decision for a change of leadership in the Air Force.
Gates briefly mentioned the acquisition side of the Air Forces problems, noting that he is figuring out how to get the modernization program back on track. He gave the example of the tanker decision. I mean, we're 10 years past when we should have started replacing the tanker fleet.
Gates said that no one asked him about his recommendation of Gen. Norton Schwartz, leader of Transportation Command, as Air Force Chief of Staff. A reporter asked about the choice. He's very process-oriented. I mean, the changes that he's made in TRANSCOM have been pretty dramatic in terms of how you manage all these priorities and the logistics of supporting the war in two theaters with limited capability But I also liked his experience and mobility and jointness. He has a lot of joint experience. His whole command has been about how do you support all of the services. So that was important. And frankly, also, the Special Operations experience.
-- Colin Clark
...maybe he'll have one of these on his wall:
Ouch!...
(Gouge: BJ)
-- Christian
In case you all missed it, Lockheed took its first major test flight of the STOVL JSF today.
From Lockheed Martin:
With test pilot Graham Tomlinson at the controls, the short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35B Lightning II streaked into blue Texas skies Wednesday, marking the first flight of an aircraft that will provide a combination of capabilities never before available: stealth, supersonic speed and STOVL basing flexibility.
Tomlinson, a former Royal Air Force Harrier pilot now employed by BAE Systems, performed a conventional takeoff at 10:17 a.m. CDT from Lockheed Martins Fort Worth facility. As planned, all initial F-35B flights will be made using conventional takeoffs and landings, with transitions to short takeoffs, hovers and vertical landings beginning early next year. Tomlinson guided the jet to 15,000 feet and performed a series of handling tests, engine-power variations and subsystems checks before landing at 11:01 a.m. CDT.
A great team effort led to a relaxed first flight, with the aircraft handling and performing just as we predicted based on STOVL simulator testing and flying the F-35A, Tomlinson said. The F-35B, known as BF-1, becomes the second Lightning II to enter flight test, preceded by the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-35A, which first flew in December 2006 and has completed 43 flights. The F-35B that flew today is the second of 19 System Development and Demonstration aircraft and the first to incorporate new weight-saving design features that will apply to all future F-35 aircraft.
You know the Brits (and Marines) are psyched. Now, what I'm waiting for are the transition flight tests. I want to see just how that lift fan design works when it's pushed around a little bit.
-- Christian
A former executive at Eurocopter, the European helicopter manufacturing company, went on trial in Germany for allegedly selling documents about the aircraft to Russian spies.
Typhoon, the RAF's newest fighter aircraft, has passed its latest major hurdle on the way to becoming a fully fledged multi-role combat aircraft with flying colours.
If Taliban sanctuary bases in Pakistan are not eliminated, the United States and its NATO allies will face crippling long-term consequences in their effort to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.
An academic and industrial consortium led by Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded the first phase of an advanced research contract to develop a panoramic day/night optical system that will utilize human brain activity to detect, analyze and alert foot-soldiers to possible threats.
If it were not for the serious decline in the Air Force’s nuclear mission focus and performance, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today, he would not have felt the need to replace the Air Force leadership.
Rockwell Collins, through newly-acquired Athena Technologies, has completed a successful flight test of a significantly damaged unmanned F/A-18 subscale model air vehicle.
Russia's Defense Ministry is planning to expand the presence of the Russian Navy in the world's oceans and extend the operational radius of submarines deployed with the Northern Fleet, a high-ranking military official said on Tuesday.
Tamil Tiger rebels attacked and destroyed a navy outpost in north-western Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing at least three sailors and losing four fighters of their own, a navy spokesman said.
US and Iraqi military operations in northern Iraq have cut the number of roadside bombs there nearly in half since February, the commander of Multinational Division North told reporters at a Pentagon briefing today.
BAE Systems is showcasing its global land, sea and air autonomous capabilities at this year’s AUVSI North America 2008 in San Diego from June 10th – 12th, underlining the company’s integrated approach to developing unmanned technologies across all three domains.
The next 12 months promise the beginnings of the first serious discussions of arms control and disarmament in more than a decade, according to Dr Bates Gill, Director of SIPRI, speaking at the launch of SIPRI Yearbook 2008.
US President George W. Bush and European leaders warned Iran Tuesday of new sanctions if Tehran refuses to halt a nuclear programme the West suspects to be a covert atomic weapons drive.
Gripen Industrial co-operation moves forward and the fourth annual Report on Offset Performance in the Czech Republic approved by the Czech Ministry of Defence amounts to CZK 2.6 billion.
The Boeing Company said today that the first C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) aircraft, H2, has completed its 100th flight.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a posible Foreign Military Sale to Israel of T-6A Texan aircraft as well as associated equipment and services.
While most Airmen are comfy in their beds, the flightline here is buzzing with activity and the mission continues. Airmen are covered in sweat, loading bombs, fueling and fixing planes 24 hours a day to preserve freedom.
Northrop Grumman Corporation welcomed the opportunity to participate in the enquiry by the House of Commons Defence Select Committee into ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) and the role of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in providing ISTAR capability.
The eyes of the U-2 have been scanning and scrutinizing the battlespace for more than 51 years. Achieving that degree of longevity requires another set of eyes, equal in power and focus to that of the U-2's eyes, scanning and scrutinizing the aircraft itself for defects, imperfections, deficiencies and impediments.
Every year in response to a Congressional directive the Department of the Navy issues reports that describe its plans for ship construction over a 30-year period.
If you see the man in the picture grab him and talk to him -- in a nice way and about the military. Fred Downey, military legislative aide to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), will be joining the Aerospace Industries Association as vice president of national security at the end of this month.It is refreshing to see the biggest defense industry lobby has made a very smart hire. Ive known Downey for about 10 years (though we didnt talk much while I was covering space for the last four years). You can expect a wily and febrile mind that is committed to joint operations, that understands the possibilities and limits of transformation (or whatever were calling it since Rumsfeld so tarred the term) and has had one of the highest profile bosses on defense issues on the Hill and knows where to step and where to tread lightly.
Before joining Lieberman, Downey had one job that marked him for life assistant to the man many reporters call the Yoda of the Pentagon, Andrew Marshall, head of the Office of Net Assessment. Downeys hire also appears to mark a return to a more traditional approach by AIA to defense and intelligence issues. It also should mark a return to greater stability at the group, which has gone through four national security bosses in less than six years.
The organization tried combining its highest profile issues international affairs and defense under a single person, Mark Esper, who was named executive vice president of defense and international affairs in April 2006. Esper made the decision one year ago to join something many of us can barely remember -- the presidential campaign of former Sen. Fred Thompson.
-- Colin Clark
I noticed the following contract announcement this morning when I read the DoD's daily roundup:
Boeing Co., of Huntington Beach, Calif., is being awarded a firm fixed price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for $7,521,000. The Speed Agile Concept Demonstration program seeks to achieve a technology readiness level of at least five 2010 on an integrated mobility configuration in the areas of high lift, efficient transonic flight, and flight control, in order to support future technology development and acquisition activities. At this time $800,000 has been obligated. Department of the Air Force, 84 CSW, 518CBSS/PK, Hill AFB, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA8212-08-C-0006).
Sounds interesting enough. "Speed Agile" concept demonstrator? So, I scanned around for some more info. Looks like back in August the Air Force published a solicitation for a concept demonstrator for a new generation of lifters that can operate with capabilities somewhere in between the C-130 and the C-17. Could this be the FCS Lifter?
The Speed Agile Concept Demonstrator, or SACD (I bet the Hill staffers love that acronym), will be able to take off in less than 4,000 feet, carry 65,000 pounds of gear or troops and fly around 1,500 nm unrefueled. This is what the Air Force is thinking about for a standard mission, and they're asking for a cruise speed of greater than .8mach at more than 30,000 feet, which means the aircraft will have to be pressurized.
The Air Force also wants the plane to be able to perform a special operations mission, carrying 20,000 lbs about 1,000 nm with a specialized flight profile that performs a 250 nm "low ingress cruise" and a similar egress cruise at "best range mach, best range altitude." The specs are intended to provide a plane that can "maximize radius and minimize mission execution time for given payload and mid-mission field length," according to an Air Force solicitation document.
The plane will have to be able to handle seven standard-sized pallets, with one on the ramp. The cargo bay dimensions would be an objective of 158" wide at the bottom of the loading bay, where the C-130 checks out at about 123" at its widest point.
This is just a "concept" and the Air Force is careful to point out:
The mission profiles and performance goals provided are only intended to provide a basis for the physical scaling of concepts and are not official USAF requirements. They are intended to represent an amalgam of various physical capabilities that are of interest, and a common point of departure for comparison/parametric sensitivities to assess the robustness of integrated mobility vehicle concepts.
Well, we'll keep an eye on this and see what comes out of it. But, clearly, Boeing's getting a pretty hefty chunk of change to put this SACD together.
-- Christian
The National Guard received its first two UH-72A Lakota light utility helicopters last week, marked by a ceremony Saturday in Tupelo, Miss.
EADS North America's first two UH-72A Lakota Light Utility Helicopters for the U.S. Army National Guard were formally presented to the 1/114th Service Support Battalion
With fuel prices soaring and no apparent end in sight, the Defense Department is feeling the pinch in its pocketbook and is looking for ways to save through conservation and alternative fuels programs.
Recently, Soldiers from Combined Task Force Currahee test drove a new vehicle that could help alleviate maneuverability constraints in Afghanistan.
Humvees will soon become the Afghan National Army's vehicle of choice on the battlefield, but not until every soldier is qualified to safely operate them.
The Light Combat Aircraft 'Tejas' underwent hot weather flight trials at Air Force Station, Nagpur recently. The trials were planned at Nagpur because of the high ambient temperature conditions prevailing there during this period.
The permanent U.S. representative to NATO said on Monday she would like to see Russia as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
An RAF Reaper Unmanned Aerial Vehicle used its weapons system in support of coalition forces in Afghanistan for the first time this week.
The United States government awarded Lockheed Martin an Undefinitized Contract Authorization (UCA) for the production of 24 Advanced F-16 Block 52 aircraft for Morocco, making the Kingdom of Morocco the 25th nation to select the F-16.
While bands play, flags wave and families rejoice at the return of 4th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division Soldiers to Fort Lewis, Wash., the operation to return home their battle-weary Stryker Combat Vehicles goes on here in Southwest Asia.
The Boeing Company, in partnership with Insitu Inc., has been awarded a $65 million contract to provide continuing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) services through the ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system.
Iran on Monday vowed a "very painful" response to any Israeli action after a senior minister of the Jewish state warned of attacks if Tehran did not halt its atomic drive, the ISNA news agency reported.
US President George W. Bush on Tuesday looked to persuade European leaders to tighten the squeeze on Iran's finances, a central message of what was likely his farewell tour of the continent.
EADS Defence & Security (DS) has delivered the last of four TRS-3D naval radars to the Royal Norwegian Coast Guard, thus completing a two digit million Euro project aiming at improved security of Norway’s coastal waters and safe helicopter guidance in extreme weather conditions.
Air Force Reserve Command officials announced June 6 that a second F-22 Raptor fighter squadron will be established at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.
AgustaWestland is pleased to announce that the Finnish Border Guard has chosen the AW119 Ke as its new helicopter to sustain its fleet modernization and enhancement programme.
Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen launched the Infantry Gunnery and Tactical Simulator (IGTS) at Pasir Laba Camp on 6 Jun 08.
Distorted data introduced by a B-2 Spirit's air data system skewed information entering the bomber's flight control computers ultimately causing the crash of the aircraft on takeoff at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam
Air Force senior leaders came together here for a quarterly Process Council meeting to discuss issues facing the service today and in the future.
Finland's aviation authorities plan to investigate why two Russian fighter aircraft followed a Finnair airliner in Russian airspace en route to South Korea on Wednesday.
At the invitation of Pakistan's navy, the officer who commands U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces spoke to officers at the Pakistan Navy War College today.
A powerful set of tools specifically designed to circumvent security on computers running the Microsoft Windows operating systems was released to law enforcement and military intelligence staff in the U.S and other foreign countries by Microsoft in the summer of 2007.
The USB device was dubbed COFEE which stands for Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor. COFEE is said to contain over 100 software programs that allow the holder to quickly discover passwords, decrypt files and folders, view recent Internet activity and a great deal more. On piece of functionality allows evidence to be gathered while the computer is still connected to the Internet or other network. All you have to do is plug COFEE into a USB port of a running computer and the data extraction begins with the click of a mouse. Some security professionals and privacy advocates are concerned that Microsoft has created a secret back door within Windows. This is a concern the Microsoft has denied.
Nearly 400 people from more than 80 agencies in 35 countries attended the conference where Microsoft provided training on this tool. COFEE seems to be an easy to use, automated computer forensic tool that can be used by investigators in the field. However, one has to wonder how fast one of these devices will find their way to the darks side and in the hands of criminals. I would bet within hours of the initial distribution of this device, a bounty was established payable to the first person to deliver COFEE into the hands of the bad guys.
The attendees were shown how to use the device and other technologies that can help them fight cybercrime as well as help them investigate traditional crime with an online component. They were also instructed on topics that covered how to collect evidence from PDAs running Windows CE and how to gather evidence from Microsoft's online services and products like Hotmail and Windows.
Distribution: More than 2,000 law enforcement and intelligence officers in 15 countries, including Poland, the Philippines, Germany, New Zealand and the United States have received the device.
Development: COFEE is said to have been developed by a former Hong Kong police officer who now works for Microsoft.
Professional hackers and cyber weapons designers are smarter than you think. They have their own versions of COFEE and in all likelihood they are much better than the Microsoft tool. In fact, one professional hacker said, "If it works as good as other Microsoft applications - no one has anything to worry about." I bet they get the old "Blue Screen of Death as well."
The risk of tools like this being used by criminals and our enemies is very real. So is the potential misuse of these capabilities and the threat that it poses to privacy. That being said, given the current state of cyber crime and the threat of cyber terrorism and the looming risk of cyber war, the military, intelligence organizations and law enforcement needs all the help they can get. As I have said many times before, one person's tool is another's weapon.
-- Kevin Coleman
From the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates:
"Today I provided my recommendation to the President for the nominations to the top civilian and military leadership positions in the Air Force.
"I recommended that Michael Donley be nominated to serve as Secretary of the Air Force.
"Mike Donley is presently the Director of Administration and Management for the Department of Defense, essentially charged with running the Pentagon and its many complex operations. Mike served as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management in the first Bush Administration and, for a period, as Acting Secretary of the Air Force. In order to minimize any disruption caused by this leadership transition, I have also recommended to the President that he designate Mike Donley as Acting Secretary of the Air Force effective June 21.
"I further recommended to the President that General Norton Schwartz be nominated to serve as Air Force Chief of Staff.
"General Schwartz is presently the Commander of U.S. Transportation Command, which is in charge of the Department's extensive transportation network and world-wide operations. Prior to that, General Schwartz served in senior joint military positions as Director of the Joint Staff, Director for Operations for the Joint Staff and Deputy Commander of Special Operations Command.
"In addition, I have recommended two additional Air Force military leadership changes.
"First, General Duncan McNabb, the current Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, has been recommended to take General Schwartz's place at US Transportation Command. General McNabb has spent most of his three-plus decades in the Air Force in the areas of lift, refueling and logistics making him an ideal candidate to assume the helm of this command.
"Second, I have recommended that the President nominate Lieutenant General William Fraser III, to follow General McNabb as the next Air Force Vice Chief. General Fraser is currently the Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In that role he is the Chairman's chief liaison and advisor on international relations and political-military matters. In addition to his numerous flying and command assignment in the bomber community, General Fraser has extensive wartime, contingency and humanitarian relief operational experience.
"I am confident that Mike Donley, General Schwartz and the new Air Force leadership team have the qualifications, skill and commitment to excellence necessary to guide the Air Force through this transition and beyond.
I don't know much about Donley, but I know Norty Schwartz and really like the dude. He's a good guy, understands unconventional fights and is an independant thinker. I can't think of a better leader to take the Air Force once and for all out of the Cold War mindset.
It's also noteworthy that Duncan McNabb will replace Schwartz at Transcom, and William Fraser will replace McNabb as Vice Chief. Why? Well, look at their resumes. McNabb is a longtime transport and rotor wing pilot (red-headed step children in the AF) and Fraser is a bomber pilot (another pariah in the fighter-dominated service). If the jet-jocks can't get their act in gear, then we'll get the slow-movers into the game so change can finally come...We'll see.
-- Christian
Ceremonies held at Holloman AFB, N.M., today marked the formal beginning of operations for the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor with the United States Air Force's 49th Fighter Wing.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today announced a new task force to recommend improvements needed to ensure top-level accountability and control of U.S. nuclear weapons, delivery vehicles and sensitive components.
A senior Turkish general says Turkey and Iran have carried out coordinated strikes against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq. Over the past few months, Turkey has reportedly intensified its attacks against bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced the successful completion of the latest flight test of the sea-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) element, conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii.
I believe I have seen the future replacement for the E-8C Joint STARS fleet (shown pictured), and it's not going to be a US Air Force aircraft.
The US Navy is preparing to replace the EP-3E ARIES II, an electronic intelligence aircraft, with a new-start acquisition program called EPX.
But the navy's requirements for EPX call for an aircraft that would not only spy on enemy electronic signals, like the EP-3E, but also find and track moving targets, like the E-8C.
Interestingly, the EPX program of record will acquire 19 to 26 aircraft to replace only 11 EP-3Es flying today. At the high end of that range, 26 aircraft would nicely replace all 11 EP-3Es and all 17 E-8Cs in service. (One E-8C is a testbed, and doesn't count.)
If the air force can't pay for an E-8C replacement to appear after 2015, or even to modernize the radar on the current fleet, watch for the navy to steal this mission with the EPX. It's the roles and missions equivalent of a pick-pocketing.
And it's happened before. In 1998, the air force lost the EC-135 Looking Glass mission to the navy's E-6 take-charge-and-move-out (TACAMO) aircraft. Now, it's happening again, unless the air force acts very quickly.
This all became clear to me during my weeklong tour of Boeing's defense sites based in the Pacific Northwest. Paul Summers, Boeing's capture lead for EPX, briefed reporters about the navy's requirements, explaining that the size of the future EPX fleet had grown from 14-19 aircraft to 19-26 aircraft since last year.
The obvious question later occurred to me: Why does the navy need 26 EPX aircraft to replace 11 EP-3Es. Clearly, the navy has bigger ideas for this fleet.
Paul also discussed the new radar for the EPX. This in itself is noteworthy. The EP-3E does not have a radar. The aircraft intercepts and maps enemy communications and other electronic transmissions.
We've known for about a year that Boeing and Raytheon have installed the new littoral surveillance radar systems (LSRS) on a subset of the P-3C fleet, giving the navy its own mini-Joint STARS capability.
It is now clear that the LSRS is the proverbial trojan horse, injecting the navy into the Joint STARS business for the long-term.
Paul also explained that Boeing will consider the LSRS or another radar for EPX. The only possible alternative is a new variant of Northrop Grumman's wide area surveillance sensor developed under the multi-platform radar technology insertion program (MP-RTIP).
This will force Northrop to make a tough choice. Northrop, you see, is the prime contractor the E-8C, so it has everything to lose if the navy takes over the mission. However, if the company decides to join Boeing's EPX bid, that could be a signal that it believes the air force will never get around to replacing the E-8C.
The navy has money in the budget beginning next year to launch EPX. The air force has no funds to replace E-8Cs for the foreseeable future, and now faces a potentially disruptive leadership transition.
I'm not a betting man, but, if I was in Northrop's position, I know where I'd place my bet.
The air force has only itself to blame. The folly of the E-10 program, which spectacularly failed to combine an E-8C, and E-3A AWACS and an airborne operations center onto the same platform, has left the air force without a discernible plan to replace its aging fleets of 707-based aircraft.
The air force's only hope to stay in the E-8C business may be to observe the adage: if you can't beat them, join them.
Establishing a true "joint" partnership to acquire and operate a new fleet of narrowbody-class aircraft to serve all of the specialized missions performed today by 707s looks like the only way back in. (This idea also has the charm of making sense.)
Indeed, it has been proposed several times in the past. The only difference now is that the air force won't be calling the shots.
The navy, meanwhile, is not in this position merely through good fortune.
In 2004, the navy picked the Boeing P-8A -- based on the 737-800ERX -- to replace the P-3C, giving itself a versatile and capable platform to expand into new missions.
That's not to say that Boeing won't have to face challengers to win the EPX contract. The navy is inviting other companies to compete for EPX, but it will be difficult for the Airbus A320 and the Embraer E190 to overcome the incumbent advantages of the P-8A.
Paul Summers told us that Boeing had to make more than 50 modifications costing $1 billion to simply adapt the basic 737 airframe to meet the navy's more demanding certification requirements. The A320 and the E190 would face similar costs, possibly killing the chances for holding a fair airframe competition on EPX.
I expect that the navy will try to level the playing field in other ways. Perhaps, the navy will select the P-8A as the baseline platform and invite bidders -- including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop -- to compete for the systems integrator role.
The shortest Arab-Israeli war, the Six-Day War, broke out on June 5, 1967. It lasted until June 10 when the Arabs were comprehensively defeated.
Sixty-four years ago, a multi-national force of more than 130,000 Soldiers embarked on what is to this day, the largest one-day military invasion in history.
The Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 engine has been selected by the Royal Moroccan Air Force to power their new fleet of F-16 Block 52 aircraft.
Indonesia needs a high-tech operational marine equipment to monitor the situation at its sea and to save its territory.
Greg Combet, the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement, today announce that the first Airbus A330 had arrived in Australia for conversion to a KC-30B Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) under Project Air 5402.
Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company, has been awarded $118 million in orders to supply the U.S. Marine Corps with Falcon II AN/PRC-117(F) multiband manpack radios.
SIDM, the French interim system of medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), has successfully completed its flight acceptance operations at Air Base 118, Mont-de-Marsan.
Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), Munich, and General Dynamics European Land Systems (GD ELS), Vienna, are teaming to develop and market a new generation, air deployable, autonomous and remotely operated 155mm artillery system.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today announced the resignations of Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne and Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley following an investigation revealing a decline in the Air Force's nuclear program focus, performance and effective leadership.
Here's another input from DT's publisher emeritus Chris Michel. This video shows a couple of B-2s launching, the second one not so well. Fortunately, the pilots punch out in time.
What's a couple billion among friends and taxpayers?
-- Ward
It's just like blowing up a building, or is it?
Type up some nefarious code, hack into a government system and "boom" you bring down the whole network without even firing a shot, right?
Well that's not how the Air Force's cyber warriors see it. To them, dropping a "logic bomb" into a computer network is the same as launching a 2,000-pound JDAM from a B-2 bomber at 20,000 feet -- you've done the same kind of damage but with different means.
So take cover from incoming.
You can use standard combat terminology in cyber warfare as you can with traditional warfare, said Col. Tony Buntyn, vice commander of Air Force Cyber Command, during a June 3 interview with military bloggers.
"You can find, fix, target, and engage an enemy," he said. "A target could be a [computer] network ... or it could be physical, with a [geographical] location. But we need the capabilities, just like we have in kinetic warfare, to engage targets when necessary."
Cyber warfare -- the use of computers and digital code to penetrate information systems and damage or infiltrate a foreign network -- is becoming an increasingly critical capability to the U.S. military. Because of the ease of access to powerful hardware and the ubiquity of hacker software, more countries and non-state actors are getting into the game, Pentagon and government officials say.
Countries like China, Russia and North Korea have quietly entered the cyber-warfare arena, already scoring significant hits against U.S. and other government computer and communications networks.
To computer warriors like Buntyn and his fellow Airmen, sometimes your defense is only as good as your offense.
"It could be either a kinetic or non-kinetic effect you want to achieve. And we need the ability to provide either," Buntyn said.
But when and how to use either method is based on the kind of conflict you're in.
"It depends on our target; it depends on our rules of engagement -- are we conducting open warfare with an adversary?" Buntyn explained. "If that's the case, then we don't really need to be discreet about it. When we drop a JDAM and leave a big smoking hole, that's not very discreet."
"If I can [locate] it and I can take it out with a kinetic attack ... and it meets the rules of engagement, then that might be the preferred method."
That works if you're targeting terrorist nodes and communication relays during an open conflict. But what about malicious network infiltration originating from a country with whom the U.S. is not at war?
"If it's an [Internet]-based target that's accessible to us and we can take it out electronically, reliably, then that may be the preferred method," Buntyn added.
Though China has become "cyber-enemy-number-one" recently, with stories of DoD network hacking attacks and millions spent by the PLA on its computer warfare capabilities, the Air Force isn't looking too hard over its shoulder at the rising cyber power in the Pacific -- despite Pentagon warnings.
"In the past year, numerous computer networks around the world, including those owned by the U.S. Government, were subject to intrusions that appear to have originated within the PRC. These intrusions require many of the skills and capabilities that would also be required for computer network attack," according to this year's Pentagon report on Chinese military power. "Although it is unclear if these intrusions were conducted by or with the endorsement of the PLA or other elements of the PRC government, developing capabilities for cyber warfare is consistent with authoritative PLA writings on this subject."
But to Buntyn, the threat is more diffuse, accessible to all and is proliferating more than on a simple state-to-state basis.
"The entry into this warfighting domain is very cheap. A 12 year old with a laptop can spend a couple hours on the Internet and achieve a pretty good capability," he said. "It's not limited to nation states. There are plenty of criminal organizations that are out there just trying to make a buck and they're using the same offensive tools that a nation-state would use."
-- Christian
Air Force officials say the B-1B Lancer sniper pod could be operational as early as this summer after accelerated testing cut the length of the sniper pod program from nine to three months.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates sacked the air force's civilian secretary and chief of staff, blaming them for two major blunders that shook confidence in US control over its nuclear arsenal.
More than 200 members of Holloman Air Force Base gathered to welcome the first two F-22 Raptors as they taxied into Hangar 301 here at 2:49 p.m., marking June 2 as an important date in 49th Fighter Wing history.
Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island ushered in the next generation of naval electronic attack aircraft with the official arrival of its first EA-18G Growler, June 3.
Raytheon Company system integrator of the Patriot Air Defense System, successfully led a team in the launch of the Patriot's newest interceptor, the Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) version of the PAC-3 missile, during a recent test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
Changes in technology and adversary behavior will invariably produce new threats that must be assessed by defense and homeland security planners, and a decision must be made about whether they merit changes in current defenses or the development of new defensive approaches.
The Boeing Company today announced that Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has completed the first in-country modification of a 737-700 into an Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) platform for Turkey's Peace Eagle program.
The U.S. Navy has completed developmental testing of a BAE Systems fiber-optic towed decoy, and has begun operational tests on the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet...
The nation's first Littoral Combat Ship, Freedom (LCS 1), has successfully completed another testing milestone with the "light off" of the new warship's twin gas turbine propulsion engines as it undergoes final preparation for sea trials.
The Royal Navy’s new advanced naval air defence system, PAAMS (Principal Anti-Air Missile System), was successfully test fired for the first time on 4th June from the trials barge Longbow at the French DGA’s CELM (Centre d’Essais de Lancement des Missiles ) test range near the Ile du Levant off the French coast.
Officials in Iraq say 19 U.S. service members died in Iraq in the month of May, the lowest monthly casualty toll since the start of the war five years ago.
South Korea on Wednesday launched the third and latest of its 214-class submarines to be commissioned by the end of next year, bringing the total number of submersibles in the country to 12, Yonhap news agency reported.
Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. Has completed and launched the third 1,800-ton class submarine for the Korea Navy.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Spain of Block IV Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles as well as associated equipment and services.
The Boeing Company delivered the first fleet EA-18G Growler airborne electronic attack (AEA) aircraft to the U.S. Navy's Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 129 on Tuesday at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., ahead of schedule and within budget.
Elbit Systems Ltd. and Lockheed Martin inaugurated the avionics simulation system delivered to the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD) for the Israel Air Force (IAF) F-16I Sufa aircrew flight and system trainer.
The Army National Guard is receiving new, front-line, state-of-the-art UH-72A helicopters, which will improve its capability to perform home security missions, disaster relief, search and rescue, medical evacuations, counterdrug and other vital missions.
From Pentagon guru Colin Clark's additions to the lead story on Military.com.
A source with close ties to the senior Air Force leadership told Military.com that the likely replacement for Moseley is Gen. John D.W. Corley, commander of the Air Force's Air Combat Command. The source said that Corley had been tagged to replace Moseley in the fall, when Moseley was due to retire. This source, and an industry source, said that Wynne's successor was unlikely to make it through the Senate's nomination process before the end of the Bush administration and would serve as acting secretary.
MORE...
Initial congressional reaction was positive. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, praised Gates for appointing Schlesinger to lead the nuclear weapons study and made it clear he accepted Gates' decision to oust the senior leaders during a time of war.
"The incidents at Minot and Barksdale Air Force Bases and the misshipment of missile nose cones to Taiwan should never have happened," Skelton said in a statement released Thursday evening. "I look forward to reviewing Admiral Kirkland Donald's report on what went wrong with the Air Force's management of nuclear weapons security and safety."
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a new member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also praised Gates for his actions. "What is so encouraging is that Secretary Gates is walking the walk on accountability," she said in a statement.
Rock on DoD Buzz-master!
-- Christian
We're working on getting the details, folks, but we hear that Gen. Mike Moseley got the boot today and Wynne is on the way out too.
Can you say "loose nukes" compounded by a sharp case of "next-war-itis?"
More to follow soon.
MORE FROM Military.com:
Defense officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne to step down.
A public announcement was expected later in the day. There was no immediate word on who would be nominated to replace Moseley and Wynne.
The Air Force has endured a number of embarrassing setbacks over the past year. In August, for instance, a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown across the country. The pilot and crew were unaware they had nuclear arms aboard.
The error was considered so grave that President Bush was quickly informed.
-- Christian
The Pentagon's acquisition czar, John Young, is regarded pretty highly on Capitol Hill but he's got a tough sell when he tells lawmakers and reporters that the military is getting a handle on how well it buys the nation's weapons. See my story on military.com for the details.
After his testimony yesterday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, I asked Young if the acquisition system is broken, as might seem self-evident to those who look at the enormous increase of $295 billion in the acquisition costs of the 95 major defense acquisition programs over the last few years.
Young said he did not think the system was broken. He pointed to comments at the hearing by the Government Accountability Office's acquisition expert, Katherine Schinasi, who said the structure of the system was sound.
Then Young launched into a lament about the paucity of acquisition officials available to manage the growing number of large programs. He pointed to the enormously difficult process he faces in trying to hire mid-career people from industry to bolster the ranks of weapons buyers. Part of the difficulty the Pentagon faces, he made clear, is that there just aren't enough new ideas and improved processes moving back and forth between government and industry because of this lack of mid-career people.
To someone who has covered acquisition since 1996, much of what Young said had the ring of truth. At the same time he didn't answer the unasked question: if you don't have enough buyers, then why don't you ask Congress for permission and money to hire a whole bunch more.
Perhaps that will come next.
-- Colin Clark
Few car owners would ever think of pouring water down the gas tank; however, as Air Force officials here continue initiatives to redefine the Air Force's energy culture, more Airmen might picture water as an energy source.
A new US general took command of NATO forces in Afghanistan Tuesday, vowing to deal with rebels who stood in the way of stability, as new attacks killed around two dozen people including three alliance troops.
Contacts between the American and Iranian naval fleets would be useful once the Islamic Republic stopped backing violence in Iraq, the top US naval commander in the Middle East said in an interview published Wednesday.
The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded BAE Systems a contract for the supply of up to 10,000 Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV), worth up to US$2.2 billion, with US$1.65 billion of funding already agreed.
In less than six months, Saab Barracuda has delivered prototype camouflage systems fitted to the Australian Army for the M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks and M88A2 Hercules Armoured Recovery Vehicles, giving them higher survivability on the battlefield.
The 432nd Wing here that flies the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles was designated an air expeditionary wing by Air Combat Command officials in May.
Today marks the 66 anniversary of the battle of Midway Island, a key engagement that, if it had gone the other way, would have potentially crippled the U.S. naval capability for good. I know you guys are more into looking at the future of defense, but sometimes I think it's good to step back and remember how we got where we are.
From the Navy history center:
The Battle of Midway, fought over and near the tiny U.S. mid-Pacific base at Midway atoll, represents the strategic high water mark of Japan's Pacific Ocean war. Prior to this action, Japan possessed general naval superiority over the United States and could usually choose where and when to attack. After Midway, the two opposing fleets were essentially equals, and the United States soon took the offensive.
Japanese Combined Fleet commander Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto moved on Midway in an effort to draw out and destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet's aircraft carrier striking forces, which had embarrassed the Japanese Navy in the mid-April Doolittle Raid on Japan's home islands and at the Battle of Coral Sea in early May. He planned to quickly knock down Midway's defenses, follow up with an invasion of the atoll's two small islands and establish a Japanese air base there. He expected the U.S. carriers to come out and fight, but to arrive too late to save Midway and in insufficient strength to avoid defeat by his own well-tested carrier air power.
Yamamoto's intended surprise was thwarted by superior American communications intelligence, which deduced his scheme well before battle was joined. This allowed Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander, to establish an ambush by having his carriers ready and waiting for the Japanese. On 4 June 1942, in the second of the Pacific War's great carrier battles, the trap was sprung. The perseverance, sacrifice and skill of U.S. Navy aviators, plus a great deal of good luck on the American side, cost Japan four irreplaceable fleet carriers, while only one of the three U.S. carriers present was lost. The base at Midway, though damaged by Japanese air attack, remained operational and later became a vital component in the American trans-Pacific offensive.
This brings up an excellent point, though. My good friend Bob Dudney, the editor of Air Force magazine, recently wrote an editorial cautioning against Gates' rhetorical punch at the services' obsession with future technological developments -- or "next war-itis" as he put it.
Are Pentagon leaders really serious about this? Is Gates himself serious about it? He has embraced a stylized image of a future world landscape dominated by shadowy, lightly armed enemies sallying forth from remote redoubts and engaging in nonstop urban warfare. In case Mr. Gates has forgotten, it was not that long ago that the US had to use main conventional forcesprincipally air forcesto win the 1991 Gulf War. More recently, high-end forces were needed to fight in Bosnia, Serbia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. None of these operations would have been possible without advanced, front-line weapons.
Gates wants to cure the services of "next-war-itis," but he would only weaken the patients.
Neither Gates nor anyone else can safely predict the likelihood of major conventional war. Surely the Pentagon leader is aware of the huge buildup of fighters, warships, and other modern arms in China and Russia, as well as regional threats posed by the likes of North Korea and Iran. If it is true that the eruption of a major clash of conventional arms is not likely, it is because US air, sea, and land forces are strong enough to deter any aggressive moves. That is hardly a reason for turning away to deal with lesser problems.
While I see Gates' point, I also think it's important to hedge against future "full spectrum" threats. You can easily modify training to accommodate new battlefield problems, but developing and fielding equipment -- something as big as a fighter jet or an aircraft carrier -- for such an unseen eventuality could prove fatal.
So take some time today to consider how things could have been if the battle of Midway had gone the other way, and how differently that desperate time might have unfolded had the U.S. truly prepared itself for resurgent powers with full-spectrum threats in the interwar years.
(Thanks to NC for the Dudney gouge)
-- Christian
Last Monday the Defence Ministers of Sweden and Finland entered the debate in Dagens Nyheter on closer cooperation in defence matters.
On Saturday the Indian Air Force pilots landed a Russian-built Antonov-32 transport aircraft at the Daulatbeg Oldi air base in Ladakh province of Indian administered Kashmir.
About 7,000 Soldiers from the 101st Airborne and 4th Infantry Divisions deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are wearing helmet sensors to help Program Executive Office-Soldier improve upon the safety features of the advanced combat helmet.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday that Iran's quest for nuclear capacity must be stopped by all possible means, and urged the world to warn Tehran of its devastating repercussions.
Air Force Materiel Command members are using remote maintenance technology to repair air traffic control and landing systems, or ATCALS, and perform remote flight inspections, saving the Air Force millions of dollars.
Greg Combet, the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement, today announced that following a successful operational test program, Australia is receiving operational capability from the Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) Communications system.
In a drizzly ceremony today, we will witness Secretary of the Navy Don Winter accept the delivery of the first EA-18G Growler to the USN's fleet readiness squadron.
This would be a fairly routine affair except for a couple of very distinguishing facts: first, the event is occurring exactly according to the original schedule and, second, Boeing's five-year-old development program is not over-budget.
It'd be nice to think those two facts weren't so extraordinary, but, in the world of military acquisition, it is.
To be sure, there remain a few caveats. The operational test phase begins in September, which will expose any unresolved design or technology glitches. The Government Accountability Office reported in March that a few software issues need to be fixed before operational tests can be performed. We'll see how that pans out, but none of the issues sound like show-stoppers.
Some of the more cynical observers (blush) might also say that Boeing and the Navy cheated with the EA-18G.
This is not the same as starting a new weapon project from scratch. The airframe for the EA-18G is based on the design of the already proven F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and the electronic warfare package is based largely on the ICAP III suite already flying on the EA-6B Prowler. The ALQ-99 jammer is merely a decade-old, upgraded version of a pod that first flew in 1971 (and needs to be retired as threats evolve over the next decade).
But it's also not fair to Boeing to dismiss the complexity of this project. Repackaging the ICAP III to fit inside the Growler involved no small risk. The "football" ALQ-218 receiver mounted on the EA-6B's tail was split into two pieces and installed in the more aerodynamically harsh environment of the EA-18G's wingtips. I'm still curious how they managed to pull off the ALQ-218's radome, which must be sturdy enough to survive on the wingtip, yet not too sturdy to interfere with the operations of the embedded antenna.
Integrating the all-new Raytheon-made Communications Countermeasures Set (CCS) also added some complexity to the project, as did the introduction of the highly useful interference cancellation system (INCANS), which allows the EA-18G to continue jamming an enemy radar even while the pilot continues to communicate with other friendly aircraft.
It's reasonable to question whether the navy should have been still more ambitious. Why not introduce an all-new, digital-era jamming pod with the first delivery of the EA-18G? Why not design a next-generation jammer aircraft around a more stealthy platform, like the navy's forthcoming F-35C due to be delivered in 2015? Why not challenge your contractor -- to which you're paying billions of dollars -- to invent something completely new, versus "repackaging" two familiar systems?
At the end of the day, the navy is getting exactly what it paid for, on-time. In this day and age, maybe that's all you can really ask for.
The prestigious Berlin Air Show (ILA) attracted around 250,000 visitors over six days and saw contracts worth some five billion euros ($7.8 billion) sealed as it drew to a close on Saturday, May 31.
And to follow up from yesterday's story on Military.com, it turns out the U.S. has also expressed some interest in odering some Tucanos.
Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer is participating in preliminary negotiations to sell the U.S. government eight 314-B1 Super Tucano light attack and training planes for use in Iraq, the company said June 2.
The plane maker is offering Washington the Super Tucano in a tender process opened by the U.S. government, according to an Embraer spokesman who declined to be named in keeping with company policy.
More...
Brazilian law prohibits a private company from selling arms for use in existing conflicts, but the spokesman said the plane was not shipped with any armaments and was intended for training purposes in the U.S.
If the U.S. government decides to buy the Tucano from Embraer and requests that they be outfitted with weapons, at that point the Brazilian government would have to step in and negotiate the sale, the Embraer spokesman said.
And I posed the question to our boy Steve Trimble who's an oft contributor to DT and he had this to say:
This appears to be the long-awaited purchase of Super Tucanos by the USAF on behalf of the Iraqi Air Force. Im not sure what preliminary negotiations means. There were three or four other candidates for the order, and they may still be in the running. Its possible that the USAF remains in preliminary negotiations with all of the possible bidders, which include the Hawker Beechcraft T-6, the Pilatus PC-9 and perhaps the Korea Aerospace KT-1 Wong Bee. (The T-6 and PC-9, by the way, are essentially the same aircraft.) As far as I know, the USAFs senior leadership remain adamantly opposed to buying such an aircraft for its own purposes, preferring to employ the unmanned MQ-9 Reaper and the A-10 for the same basic mission.
I'll try to ping my sources in the FMS office in Iraq to see what the deal is...More to follow.
[Photo: totally Photoshopped]
-- Christian
Australian troops have lowered the flag on their highly successful commitment to the security of southern Iraq and the training of the new Iraqi Army.
The European Commission welcomes the adoption in Dublin on Wednesday 28 May of a multilateral convention to ban all cluster munitions within eight years.
Pratt & Whitney's F135 short-takeoff/vertical-landing (STOVL) propulsion system powered the first F-35B Lightning II's STOVL-mode ground test at Lockheed Martin's STOVL Operations Test Facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
The 25th armoured brigade of the Greek armed forces has put the first LEOPARD 2A6 HEL supplied by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) into service.
The Saab Gripen Demonstrator aircraft powered by a GE F414G engine successfully completed its first flight on May 27 at Saab, Linkoping, Sweden. The flight lasted 30 minutes and completed all planned goals.
Our freind Nich Schwellenbach over at the Project on Government Oversight dredged up a pretty damning report from the Pentagon's Defense Contract Management Agency that calls Lockheed Martin's aircraft division to the carpet for not keeping close track of costs.
Lockheed Martin, the worlds largest defense contractor, does "not provide the requisite definition and discipline to properly plan and control complex, multibillion dollar weapon systems acquisition programs," states the executive summary of a November 2007 Pentagon report obtained by the Project On Government Oversight. Questions about this report are likely to be raised this morning at a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing on weapons acquisition.
The report by the Defense Contract Management Agency found that Lockheed Martins military aircraft division based in Fort Worth, Texas, is not compliant with contractually-required industry guidelines for tracking and managing costs called the "Earned Value Management System." EVMS helps contractors and the government spot potential cost problems before they balloon out of control. This April the GAO reported $295 billion in cost growth for the 95 major weapons systems it reviewed bringing their estimated total price tag to $1.6 trillion.
The report will be highlighted today at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee which will ask questions about "acquisition of major defense weapons systems" of John Young -- who needs no introduction -- and Katherine Schinasi, the GAO's Managing Director of Acquisition and Sourcing Management (whatever the heck that means)...Our boy Colin Clark will be there to hear what's what and he'll have some follow-up gouge for you on what goes on.
The decline of Pentagon and contractor emphasis on EVMS was an unintended consequence of 1990s acquisition reform, Dr. James I. Finley, the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, told POGO. EVM is getting more attention throughout industry now that the DoD is stressing compliance.
Ouch...
-- Christian
Coalition airpower integrated with coalition ground forces in Iraq and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan during operations June 1, according to Combined Air and Space Operations Center officials here.
The Russian displays at the ILA-2008 International Aerospace Exhibition, held in Berlin from May 27 to June 1, can be described as epoch-making.
Lockheed Martin has received a $90 million contract to support U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps MLRS launchers. Lockheed Martin's Life Cycle Contractor Support (LCCS) system will support more than 300 launchers through 2010.
Future Combat System Spin Out 1 items, currently being evaluated by Soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas, were demonstrated earlier this month on Capitol Hill.
Rheinmetall Defence and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have announced their new cooperation agreement on the marketing of the Heron TP UAV reconnaissance system for long-range operations in the Bundeswehr programme SAATEG (“imaging surveillance system for the depth of the deployment theatre”) during the Berlin Air Show ILA 2008.
AeroVironment, Inc. (AV) today announced that The Netherlands Ministry of Defence, acting through its Defence Materiel Organization (DMO), has awarded AV a contract for RQ-11B (Raven) small unmanned aircraft systems.
Alert for those who sell and build the nations military and intelligence satellites. You know that space programs have been wallowing in hip-deep trouble for most of the last four years. Well, John Young, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics (in the picture), is trying to do something lasting about it by signing a memo by the end of the week creating a new director-level position one of only seven in the department reporting directly to him for space and intelligence capabilities.
My source says the position is being created because there just isnt enough focus on space and intelligence programs (a lot of the big intel programs are space programs) at the OSD level. It will oversee not only satellites but the enormous and often underfunded ground systems they depend on.
Some of the responsibilities being placed in this new slot are coming from John Grimes office. He is assistant secretary of Defense for networks and information integration and his main job is to serve as principal adviser to the Secretary of Defense for non-intelligence space and information superiority. But the position also ensures that intelligence data is as fused as possible and can be distributed. And he oversees DISA, which provides commercial and military satellite communications services.
A congressional aide who follows space and intelligence issues said the new position is a good first step to try and reintegrate black and white space and strengthen the idea of an executive for space. For those who dont follow space acquisition closely, the executive agent for space is Mike Wynne, who also serves as Air Force Secretary. The executive agent is supposed to make sure that unclassified and classified space programs are run well and meets the nations needs. He is supposed to be the one-stop shop for most space acquisition and budget issues and is supported by the National Security Space Office. But the black and white sides of space have drifted pretty far apart over the last four years, with the NRO withdrawing its personnel and budgetary support about two years ago from the space office.
But the congressional aide does not think the black and white sides of space are going to be well integrated during Bush because of issues in the office of the Director of national Intelligence. But the new position should help keep the need for a strong executive agent for space front and center.
-- Colin Clark
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff warned that the Hezbollah resistance movement is the greatest threat to US national security. Hezbollah is known or suspected to have been involved in numerous terror attacks against the U.S., Israel or other Western targets, and includes the 1983 suicide truck bombings in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. Marines at their barracks and 58 at the French military barracks. Intelligence officials in the U.S. and Britain believe Hezbollah cells may use their computer expertise and capabilities to launch cyber attacks.
A 2002 CIA report warned a number of terrorist groups are beginning to plan attacks on western computer networks. The report went on to say that al-Qaeda and Hezbollah were becoming more adept at using the internet and computer technologies. In more recent reports they name Sunni extremists Hezbollah and Aleph as groups believed to be developing cyber terrorism plans. For terrorist groups, cyber weapons are cheap, easy to acquire and difficult to detect or track and are quickly becoming a common weapon in their arsenal.
While Hezbollah's capabilities to launch such an attack are questionable, the intelligence community in U.S., Britain and Israeli are taking the threat seriously. Why, because Hezbollah showed its increasing technological sophistication and capabilities during its war with Israel back in 2006. Once Israel began bombing Hezbollah targets, the intelligence sources say cyber space began. While intelligence analysts are convinced conventional terror remains Hezbollah's main strategy and weapon, some believe that it could activate sleeper cells in order to open a second front in cyber space. Intelligence sources know that terrorist groups including Hezbollah, the Abu Nidal Organization, and UBL's Al-Qeida Organization are using computerized files, email, and encryption to support their operations.
Hezbollah Profile (AKA Hizbollah, Hizbu'llah)
Established In the 1980s
Home Base: Lebanon, but it also has cells in North/South America, Asia, Europe and Africa.
Support: Iran and Syria provide substantial organizational, training and financing.
Orientation: Hezbollah is a radical Iranian-backed Lebanese Islamic Shiite group
Funding: estimated at $60 million annually
Size: Hezbollah's core consists of several thousand militants and activists
Equipment: Hezbollah possesses up-to-date information technologies - broadband wireless networks and computers.
Cyber Capabilities: Global Rating in Cyber Capabilities -- Tied at Number 37
Hezbollah has been able to engage in fiber optic cable tapping, enabling data interception and the hijacking of Internet and communication connections.
Cyber Warfare Budget: $935,000 USD
Offensive Cyber Capabilities: 3.1 (1 = Low, 3 = Moderate and 5 = Significant)
Cyber Weapons Rating: Basic -- but developing intermediate capabilities
Web Site: http://www.hizbollah.org or www.hizballah.org
Ties: Hezbollah has close ties with Iran. Many believe that Hezbollah is a surrogate for the Iranian army
Fact: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared May 8, 2008 that the Shiite militant group's communications network is its most important weapon, and that the government's decision to target the network was tantamount to a declaration of war. In Hezbollah's view, its communications technology is just as essential for the group's survival as its missiles.
Hezbollah is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations. The FBI says it now considers Hezbollah operatives more capable and robust than even Al Qaeda terrorists. With Hezbollah's interest in developing advanced cyber weapons, their capabilities will continue to increase. As we have seen, the proliferation of cyber weapons is rapidly expanding and no longer limited to nation states and organized criminal groups. The cyber arms club now includes terrorist groups. Using new hacking techniques, taking advantage of security vulnerabilities and using simple proven cyber attack methods, terrorists have the capability to attack us in way not seen before. Key infrastructure systems that include utilities, banking, media/TV systems, telecommunications and air traffic control systems have already been compromised. No one knows if cyber terrorists created trap doors and left logic bombs allowing them to easily bypass security systems and disrupt our critical infrastructure in coordination with traditional style attacks.
The first of the manned ground vehicles in Future Combat Systems will be unveiled in the week leading up to the Army's 233rd birthday, June 14.
US President George W. Bush lost a close ally in the Iraq war as Australian combat troops pulled out Monday to honour an election pledge by the new centre-left government.
The U.S. Army reported Thursday that the suicide rate among its soldiers continued to rise last year, and is now nearly double the rate recorded before the invasion of Iraq.
In an effort to modernize its aging tanker fleet, the Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to build the KC-45 aerial refueling aircraft in February.
Thanks to the research already carried out over the last few decades – for example, the development of three successive generations of the Fenestron tail rotor – Eurocopter now has the quietest range of ) helicopters in the world.
Rheinmetall will soon be responsible for running the GÜZ, one of the world’s most advanced combat training centres, a German Army facility located in the Altmark district of Saxony-Anhalt.
Chile officially welcomed the Almirante Condell (the former-HMS Marlborough) into the Chilean fleet at a Commissioning Ceremony yesterday, Wednesday 28 May 2008.
Germany unexpectedly announced on Thursday, May 29, that it would complete the destruction of its arsenal of cluster bombs in line with a new international treaty proposing a complete ban of the dangerous weapons.
Russia is against NATO expansion toward its borders in principle, the prime minister said in an interview with French daily Le Monde released on Saturday.
The Italian Army has successfully conducted two test firings of its Aster 30 missile as part of the operational evaluation of the SAMP/T air defence missile system.
The shaft-driven lift fan propulsion system that will enable the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter to perform short takeoffs and vertical landings (STOVL) operated for the first time in the aircraft during ground testing on Sunday, May 25.
The Navy’s newest airborne electronic attack asset, the EA-18G Growler, will be accepted by the commander of the Electronic Attack Wing at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington, during a dedication ceremony at Whidbey June 3.
In a bid to strengthen the offensive prowess of its armed forces, Indian government has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to acquire 22 attack helicopters.
This morning Military.com has a story on America's most famous (or infamous) private security contractor, Blackwater USA, purchasing a light attack aircraft.
Report Says Blackwater Bought Fighter (AP)
A subsidiary of U.S. military security contractor Blackwater Worldwide has purchased a fighter plane from the Brazilian aviation company Embraer, a Brazilian newspaper reported June 1.
The 314-B1 Super Tucano propeller-driven fighter - the same used by the Brazilian military - was bought for $4.5 million and delivered to EP Aviation at the end of February, according to the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper.
First of all the headline is misleading. The Tucano isn't a "fighter" unless you're a seriously third world air force. But it has been bandied around as a good answer for a "counter-insurgency" aircraft. So Blackwater has clearly done some research (and been reading DT, I have to assume) on the best plane to fight a dirty war. It's interesting, too, that the company is buying new. Seems to me there'd be a lot more surplus gear on the market for them to snap up -- and keep it low profile as well.
It was not clear if it was Embraer's first sale of a military-style aircraft to a private company. EP Aviation has 33 planes and helicopters registered with the FAA, according to the agency's Web site, only one of which is from Embraer.
Officials with Brazil's government and Embraer declined to comment on the Estado report. Phone calls to Blackwater were not returned.
The sale was apparently approved, the Estado report noted, by Brazil's president in a deal negotiated with the U.S. government.
Brazilian law prohibits the sale of arms to companies or for use in existing conflicts.
It does worry be a bit each time a company like Blackwater continues this arms build up. Sources tell me they've got a "Spectre'-like" gunship already, and they've been buzzing around Baghdad in spec-ops-style armed Little Birds. So what happens when a contract with the US Gov goes bad -- say Congress pulls funding from a contract midway through the agreement. Will Blackwater use this kind of equipment to come collect what it's owed? Seems far fetched, I know, but Blackwater officials are downplaying the Tucano buy to curb fears.
The newspaper reported that Blackwater president Gary Jackson said the plane would be used for training.
The plane sold to EP Aviation did not include the two .50-caliber machine guns normally attached to the wings.
Oh, I'm sleeping better already...
-- Christian
On May 27, 2008, in the Shonefeld (Germany) the ILA’2008 International air show started its work.
The Sokol aircraft plant, based in Nizhny Novgorod, central Russia, is to launch production of the MiG-29M/M2 Fulcrum fighter plane, the company's general director said on Friday.
The former joint head of European aerospace group EADS, Noel Forgeard, has been detained by police on suspicion of insider trading, French media reported Wednesday, May 28.
Here's some amazing footage forward to us by the man who brought DT to the masses, Chris Michel. You can imagine the order these guys were issued: "You see that mushroom cloud, boys? Go get it!" And dig those equine gas masks . . .
Nuclear war is not only survivable . . . it can be fun!
-- Ward
Last week we had exoskeletons...this week it's bionic arms. And I think this is from the guy who invented the Segway.
[Source: All Things Video]
Enjoy!
-- Christian
At my old job, we used to always joke that it wasn't news unless the Washington Post, New York Times or AP reported it -- even if we'd done the story a month earlier.
Well, here's another case of the "it ain't news" phenomenon. We've been covering the heck out of this issue for more than a year, but when the chief says something about it and the AP hears it, well, then, Stop the Presses!
From today's Military.com headlines:
The military is reviewing Soldiers' complaints that their standard ammunition isn't powerful enough for the type of fighting required in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army's highest-ranking officer said Thursday. But Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, said it was too soon to say whether the Pentagon will switch.
Current and former Soldiers interviewed by The Associated Press said the military's M855 rifle rounds are not powerful enough for close-in fighting in cities and towns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Speaking with reporters at a conference in Huntsville, Casey said leaders are constantly soliciting feedback from Soldiers in the field and were aware of complaints about the M855 ammunition.
"To effectively prepare them we have to adapt as the enemy adapts, and that is some of the feedback we have gotten," Casey said. "We'll evaluate it quickly and then we'll decide how we want to proceed."
But Casey said it would be premature to say if the Pentagon will consider a different type of ammunition.
"I can't tell you exactly what we're going to do," he said.
How much do you want to bet the answer to that question is "nothing"...? Kinda like the M-4 debate, huh?
-- Christian
The Army, unhappy that the House Armed Services Committee plans to cut $200 million from its top modernization program, plans a June 11 assault on the House side of the Capitol using elements of its Future Combat System. Relax! Its a joke.
But the Army really does want to show the Hill just how effective FCS can be and how much it is beginning to produce capabilities soldiers use in Iraq now or in the near future. And it does plan a June 11 demonstration on the Hill.
Lt. Gen. Stephen M. Speakes, the Armys deputy chief of staff for programs, spoke Thursday afternoon with reporters and one of his first points was that the Army does have a vision when it comes to FCS. I asked Gen. Speakes how the Army is answering the HASC, which made a fairly compelling argument. Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), chairman of the House Armed Service airland subcommittee, said he cut 5.5 percent of program funding to reduce concurrency of network and manned ground vehicle development and reduce program management costs. On top of that, the subcommittee shifted $33 million from long-term portions of the program to near-term elements that have a chance of being fielded by 2011. Abercrombie made it clear that technical reasons werent the only justification for the reduction. FCS, he said, continues to operate in violation of many major Department of Defense acquisition policies, including the basic and long-standing policy requiring full and adequate testing of equipment before production begins. If that sounds to you like the Democratic complaints about the Missile Defense Agencys approach to acquisition, you win a Kewpie doll.
Gen. Speakes very respectfully offered this justification when I asked him how the Army is answering the House criticisms: This is an integrated program. You cant break it apart and still deliver the capabilities. Also, Speakes said the service plans to show lawmakers just how much FCS is influencing the fight, citing the FRAG kit 5 armor used on Humvees, which he said is the precursor for FCS armor. The first version of the crucial FCS network, progress on which has been criticized by the Government Accountability Office in recent reports, is being tested at Fort Bliss. Most of all, Speakes said, the pressure in on us to deliver and to make the capabilities we are talking about and make them real. We think we are answering that test.
Speakes approach on all this may have been influenced by Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ), ranking member of the airland subcommittee. In a recent blog about FCS, Saxton said the Army needs to spend less time trying to save the FCS program; and more time explaining how soldiers want and need the capabilities that FCS brings to the fight.
Speakes also addressed the challenge in Defense Secretary Robert Gatess May 13 speech in Colorado, when he said the military must beware of planning to fight the next war and find itself unready for the current one.
He said that FCS, which he saw in action at Fort Bliss, must continue to demonstrate its value for the types of irregular challenges we will face, as well as for full-spectrum warfare. Speakes said FCS will be able to go anywhere and handle any fight. It is, for example, being modified to better cope with the threat from IEDs, he said.
Well see whether the House Democrats and Gates buy in. Reminder the Senate Armed Services Committee fully funded the administrations $3.6 billion request for FCS.
-- Colin Clark
The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China were unforgiving "enemies" from the mid-1950s through the end of the Cold War. True, the two communist giants did - with great caution - collaborate to arm and train the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. But politically and even ideologically they were enemies.
Indeed, after President Richard M. Nixon's visit to China in 1972 the United States and China entered a period of limited cooperation aimed against the Soviet Union. Over the past 35 years this relationship has had up and downs - in the 1980s the Reagan administration began a military relationship, which included the establishment of a U.S. "listening post" in China to intercept Soviet communications; during the Clinton administration there was considerable technology transfer to China, while U.S.-China economic ties grew precipitously.
Following the demise of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 Russia and China entered a new relationship, which soon included massive sales of Russian military equipment to China including high-performance aircraft, destroyers, submarines, and other advanced weapons. Now Russia and China have reached a new level of cooperation - some might label it collaboration.
Russia's new president, Dmitri Medvedev, has just completed a visit to Beijing. With China's President Hu Jintao, Medvedev has signed a joint statement declaring that Russia and China are ready to push forward a new level of economic cooperation between their nations. Medvedev said that his country's relationship with China is now a driving force on the world stage and can no longer be ignored - that the international community can no longer make major decisions without the participation of the two countries. He added that Russia will continue to pursue close ties with China, even if it makes other countries uneasy. "Our activity is not directed against any other country but serves to maintain an international balance," Medvedev said of Russia's new level of cooperation with China.
Among the other declarations of the two leaders during the May visit by Medvedev, they joined in criticizing plans of the United States to build a missile defense system in central Europe. From the start of that effort the Russian government believed that its purpose was to neutralize Russia's IBCM force.
Both China and Russia are veto-wielding permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, where they have coordinated positions on controversial issues such as independence for Kosovo, which both countries oppose, as well as the Iranian nuclear issue. And, unlike most Western nations, Russia has not voiced concerns about China's human rights record or its assault on the protest movement that erupted against Chinese rule in Tibet last March.
This was Medvedev's first official foreign trip since becoming Russia's president earlier in May. That action in itself is of major international significance. During their May meeting President Hu accepted an invitation from Medvedev to visit Russia in 2009.
The two leaders also signed a $1 billion agreement for Russia to build a uranium enrichment facility in China. Not publicized, their staffs also discussed an increase in military cooperation between the two countries.
Meanwhile, Russian air and ground forces are dispatching planeloads of humanitarian aid to China to help with earthquake relief efforts.
Not yet clear are the long-term implications for the United States and other Western states of the new Russia-China relationship. Prior to the recent meeting in Beijing, alarmists in the United States called attention to Russian military sales to China. These are expected to increase. Less attention has been given to the more important implications of Chinese efforts to increase influence and to obtain critical resources in Africa and the Middle East. Russian-Chinese collaboration could certainly exacerbate this situation.
Our boy Steve Trimble posted a piece this morning on a series of hover pit tests conducted by Lockheed Martin with it's F-35B prototype -- they're calling it the BF-1.
Hover pit tests completed two days ago moved the first short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 within days or weeks of its first flight.
A Lockheed spokesman confirms the propulsion system for the STOVL demonstrator named BF-1 completed a series of conversions from conventional mode to vertical landing mode.
The tests were conducted at Lockheeds hover pit, where the aircraft is tethered to the ground on top of a steel grate. The pit allows Lockheeds engineers to measure vertical thrust generated by the engine.
The hover pit is the last major stop before the first flight event for BF-1, which has been scheduled for late May or early June.
Despite the need to complete hover pit tests before first flight, the lift-fan that helps power the aircraft during STOVL mode will not be engaged in a flight test for several more months. BF-1 will fly in conventional mode throughout the first flight.
This is pretty exciting because to most observers, this is the most endangered model of the F-35 (though some could argue each has its own equal level of program risk based largely on available funds in each of the services).
But in terms of technical risk, the STOVL JSF clearly has a lot to prove. The lift fan concept is an intriguing one, and if it works, could prove far less risky for the kinds of expeditionary operations its "B" model customers intend for it.
Getting the aircraft airborne has wider implications for Lockheed. The US Department of Defense has linked the release of production funding for the first batch of six F-35B low rate initial production (LRIP) aircraft to completing the first flight event.
In addition, BF-1 is the first weight-optimized airframe produced after Lockheed re-designed all three variants in 2005 to reduce or offset weight by as much as 2,268kg (5,000lbs).
The F-35B, on order by the US Marine Corps, the UK Royal Air Force and UK Royal Navy, is the first western aircraft to combine supersonic speed with the STOVL capability.
I've had the good fortune to have observed this program from its initial stages back when it was Boeing vs Lockheed in the concept demonstrator phase. I saw the LM version in the hover pits at its Skunkworks facility out in Cali back then and have been eagerly awaiting the real thing for a long time.
The Marines are gonna be psyched when this thing gets into production since clearly the AV-8B is more than ready for retirement.
(Gouge: NC)
-- Christian
One of the least understood reforms by the House of Representatives Democratic leadership was its creation last year of a Select Intelligence Oversight Panel within the House Appropriations Committee.
In these days when the intelligence budget is one of the few still growing, this new panel is especially important. On top of that, it is considering one of the few big new classified satellite programs, known as BASIC, being considered by the Pentagon and the Director of National Intelligence.
So I wanted to make sure we all knew just what this panel actually does. We asked someone who works with the panel. First and most important to those who kniow about the tremendous battles over money and power between the military and IC -- the panel oversees all intelligence activities and it does not matter whether the funding comes from the Military Intelligence Program budget or the National Intelligence Program budget. This makes the House panel, led by Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) (that's him in the photo), the only single body in the House and Senate responsible for overseeing all intelligence funding. The Senate Select Intelligence Committee only oversees the National Intelligence Program, which mostly covers so-called strategic systems, such as the NROs radar satellites.
The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee oversees both defense and intelligence spending. Traditionally, defense spending has trumped intelligence spending when it comes to the number of subcommittee staff involved and in terms of who gets what. In other words, if the Pentagon wants funding for an intelligence function and its a question of whether the military gets it or the CIA or DNI want it, the military is likely to get what it wants.
On top of being the only panel exclusively responsible for overseeing all intelligence spending, the panel makes annual recommendations to the House Appropriations defense subcommittee about classified defense appropriations. On top of that, the panel works with the senior leaders of the overall appropriations committee on all intelligence matters. So members and their staff can try to modify legislation at any point in the Houses lawmaking process, through to and including floor action.
Footnote for those who grew up with the old triptych of national intelligence, the Joint Military Intelligence Program and the Tactical Intelligence and Related Activities (known as TIARA), things have changed. Now theres just national or military intelligence money. And that is being set in legislative stone in the pending intelligence authorization and spending bills.
-- Colin Clark
The Defense Department is looking for ways to integrate a structured learning environment and gaming to train military members, a senior official said.
USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) cooperated with the French Navy May 21, as French pilots landed on the flight deck to work on their carrier qualifications.
Russia and China want an international agreement to be drafted banning the deployment of weapons in space, the countries' leaders said on Friday in a joint declaration after talks in Beijing.
The Defence Minister Shri AK Antony leaves New Delhi on Sunday, on a three-day visit to Germany. Accompanied by a high-level official delegation, Shri Antony will attend the International Aerospace Exhibition and Conferences – ILA 2008...
The UN concluded in a report Monday that a Russian fighter jet shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane last month, prompting the EU to call on Moscow and Tbilisi to "explain themselves."
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and The Boeing Co. are expanding the flight envelope for the X-48B blended wing body research aircraft.
Some of the Army's most high-tech future weapons were recently on display on Capitol Hill as part of the "Empowering Soldiers Through High Technology" exhibit sponsored by the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology.
The UN atomic watchdog has expressed serious concern that Iran is still hiding information about alleged studies into making nuclear warheads and defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment.
The Varyag, a Russian Slava-class missile cruiser dubbed 'the killer of aircraft carriers,' has started a series of live-firing exercises in the Pacific for the first time since a recent overhaul, a fleet spokesman said Monday.
Minister of State for the Armed Forces Bob Ainsworth MP and the RAF's most senior engineer, Air Marshal Sir Barry Thornton, have made statements following the conclusion of the Inquest into the crash of RAF Nimrod XV230
The Dutch aerospace industry is calling for its contract with the government on the development of the Joint Strike Fighter to be reopened, the NRC Handelsblad reported on Friday.
NASA has a new spacecraft operating on the surface of Mars. This afternoon, the Phoenix Mars Lander, built by Lockheed Martin, navigated a dramatic blazing descent through the planet's atmosphere, positioning Phoenix to dig down and touch the planet's subsurface ice.
The surface-to-surface Ballistic Missile Prithvi-II was successfully launched from ITR, Chandipur, Balasore off Orissa coast at 10:26 this morning.
Eurofighter Typhoon has the largest order book and series production in the fighter aircraft market. 707 weapon systems under contract is an indisputable fact that leaves the competition trailing.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced today the successful completion of an exercise held May 22 involving Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) elements participating in a routine operational test of a U.S. Air Force strategic missile from Vandenberg AFB
Coalition airpower integrated with coalition ground forces in Iraq and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan during operations May 25, according to Combined Air and Space Operations Center officials here.
As grand accomplishments go, a Task Force Marne aviation brigade’s 200th combat air assault mission during their current deployment to Iraq went off with as little fanfare as possible.
I got a nice note today from a reader who asked whether exoskeleton armor was discussed at the armor conference I attended this week. It was, but it was during a session that was restricted from media.
So, in honor of the Friday before memorial day, I found an interesting video you can kill some time with before the whistle sounds. It's an inside look at the Raytheon/Sarcos prototype.
But, the thing is, I've got a little problem. See, I have a thing for my boy Troy Hurtubise...you know, that innovative body armor designer who's built the IED-survivable Ursus suit. Well, I also ran across another demo video of his new Trojan II armor and I thought I'd post it here as well for you to compare (you might remember I posted Troy's last video on this site the Friday before Memorial Day 2007).
My vote's for Troy!
Have a great memorial day folks...
-- Christian
At the end of January, Christian posted some trenchant criticisms from troops in Iraq about the Stryker system, focusing on the 105 mm Mobile Gun System built by General Dynamics Corp. He cited a litany of problems, with probably the biggest being the tropical heat generated by the system.
I got an update from Col. Jon S. Lehr, commander of 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry. Lehr told reporters today that he has signed a two-page memo to the Army leadership saying the Stryker has some warts but it is clearly a piece of equipment we need to keep. He admitted the heat problem, noting that the temperature climbs to 130 degrees in the crew compartment. In addition, the coaxial machine gun has some feeding problems. But overall, the troops told him the system works, and, with improvements, should do a decent job.
Another system that Lehrs units used was the ever-evolving Land Warrior. This one earned much higher marks from Lehr: I think its a great piece of gear. And hes sent another memo to the Army leadership recommending that it be deployed throughout the Army. There are a few warts, in particular the day optic system, which Lehr said actually made things worse for soldiers. They got rid of that and lightened the systems weight always a key factor in winning praise from always over-burdened troopers. Perhaps most importantly for the system in the long run, Lehr said Land Warrior integrates nicely to the mobile data systems carried by things like tanks and Strykers.
As to how Kehrs unit has fared during its deployment in Diyala Province, get a load of these stats:
220 high value targets captured
1,700 insurgents captured
500 insurgents killed
25,000 miles of roads cleared
2,100 IEDs cleared
Lehr's bottom line: Overall, Diyala has seen a 70 percent reduction in violence over the last year.
-- Colin Clark
The recent flurry of articles and revelations about the submarine-hiding tunnels on Hainan Island in the South China Sea has again raised questions about Chinas aircraft carrier program. Indeed, some articles have suggested that the tunnels may be large enough to "hide" an aircraft carrier -- a clear impossibility.
[Photo of 'concrete' carrier: Marc van der Chijs blog]
Articles regularly cite Chinese plans to rehabilitate the ex-Soviet carrier Varyag, now moored at the port of Dalian, or even the carrier Minsk, moored as a "theme park" at Shenzhen. Other articles cite alleged Chinese plans to build up to six aircraft carriers in the near term. A South Korean newspaper has stated that "A source close to Chinese military affairs said . . . that China has been promoting the construction of a 93,000-ton atomic-powered carrier under a plan titled 085 Project. The nation also has a plan to build a 48,000-ton non-nuclear-powered carrier under the so-called 089 Project."
The Chinese Navy is certainly interested in aircraft carriers. At the end of the Cold War a Chinese naval delegation visited the Black Sea shipyard at Nikolayev in the newly established Ukraine nation to examine the unfinished Soviet carrier Varyag. Subsequently, shortly before his retirement in 1997, Admiral Liu Huaqing wrote that it was "extremely necessary" for China to possess aircraft carriers. Liu was Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Navy from 1982 to 1988, and the vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission from 1989 to 1997.
According to Liu, aircraft carriers are needed to protect Chinas sovereignty and maritime resources, especially with regard to Taiwan and the South China Sea; guard Chinas sea lines of communications as the country industrializes and becomes a major trading power; enable China to keep up with regional powers such as India and Japan; and give Chinas Navy a decisive edge in future naval warfare.
In the early 1990s the Chinese Navy began a large-scale modernization program, acquiring advanced submarines, destroyers, anti-ship missiles, and aircraft, primarily from Russia. Rumors surrounded those acquisitions that a carrier program was begun when China acquired the unfinished Russian Varyag and the retired carrier Minsk in the late 1990s. But both ships had been stripped of all useful aviation and electronic equipment, and their propulsion plants are inert; at best they could provide Chinese naval architects with hands-on design information.
Upon arrival in China the Minsk spent 18 months at the Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard for repairs and rehabilitation. She was then towed to Shenzen, arriving on 9 May 2000, configured as the center piece for a military a museum-theme park. She is certainly not capable of being returned to service as an operational carrier.
The Varyag is equally problematical. Since being towed to Dalian she has been painted but no other work has been observed, with the ship being readily visible from public locations.
Returning the Varyag -- designed in the 1960s -- to operational service would require new propulsion and auxiliary machinery, new electronics with the attendant wiring of the ship, structural repairs, and other work. Looking at the continued delays and increasing costs of a Russian shipyard rehabilitating and upgrading the Soviet-built carrier Admiral Gorshkov for the Indian Navy, objective analyses shows that the Varyag is highly unlikely to be returned to service. She has lain idle with no work on the ship having been observed since her arrival at Dalian on 3 March 2002.
Rather, it can be expected that in the next few years the Chinese Navy will initiate the construction of small carriers -- possibly modeled on the recent Japanese-built dock landing ships and aegis destroyers that have large flight decks. Such ships would be a reasonable step toward the eventual construction of large carriers -- to be started a decade or more from now.
All right folks, so you're probably going to need to help set me straight on this, but there were a couple of interesting presentations at the armor conference regarding nano-fibers -- particularly the construction of carbon fiber nano-tubes in a lab environment.
The impact on the body armor industry if this technology could be produced on a large scale is huge. One of my body armor buds told me if fully realized, "a big football player could flip a tank over" that's made out of the stuff.
Whoa!
The long and the short of it is that several researchers (particularly university labs) have been able to construct microscopic tubular structures out of carbon fiber and extrude them into long weaves of nanites. The stuff is incredibly lightweight, but stronger than steel. According to experts, if this stuff is wrapped around strands of aramid fibers like Kevlar, Dyneema or Spectra Shield, the ballistic resistance yield would be huge -- as would the weight reduction.
For example: I used two Level III plates during my last trip to Iraq that weighed about four pounds and were made of aramid materials like Dyneema [thank you to my bros at Protective Products who hooked me with the totally sweet set of 11014 plates. They saved my back and would have definately saved my butt if I'd needed them to]. There was no boron carbide (ceramic) plating in them at all. They could withstand a standard AK round, but not an armor piercing one.
With the nano-fibers, my understanding is that you could realize Level IV or even Level V ballistic protection with the same or less weight. If/when this technology is fully realized, imagine the applications for not just body armor, but armor for vehicles as well.
The researchers also mentioned the increased conductive properties of carbon nano-fibers, which could lead to armor and clothing with embedded telemetry, heating and cooling capability and even innovative Predator-like camouflaging.
But there's a down-side my armor expert warns. When the material is impacted, it results in emissions of carbon monoxide gas and microscopic particulates that could prove toxic if inhaled. One of the researchers presenting her work at the conference admitted this was a concern, but that research into the environmental effects of such a breakdown was so-far minimal. The Washington Post had a story on this phenomenon on Wednesday, citing a study that showed much higher cancer risk in mice injected with nano fibers.
Now this doesn't seem like much when applied to a body armor plate impact. But my buddy countered that if these things were part of vehicle armor, imagine the potentially toxic effluent if its struck by a massive IED or anti-armor round...
It's an amazing development that could revolutionize how we think about ballistic protection. But there's clearly still a long way to go before we can built that featherweight tank.
-- Christian
Earlier I gave you some notes I took on the forecasted expenditures of the services for armor products. The analyst from Vector Strategy also went into the forecasted expenditures of armored materials, including steel, ceramics and aramid fiber armors. But I thought that stuff was a bit speculative, so I won't pass it along unless any of you email me for it.
What she did talk about, however, were some "issues" that could affect her assumptions on materials and expenditures -- things that could raise or lower the amounts or contribute to the creation of a whole new category of material demands and dollars spent.
Some of those issues include:
Up next: Carbon nanotubes and their influence on the armor market.
-- Christian
Another presenter here at the armor conference was a woman who runs a business consulting company called Vector Strategy Inc. She gave a lightening fast briefing on trends in the armor business, including vehicle armor orders, body armor procurement, vehicle upgrades, new vehicle orders, etc. through like 2015.
It was a fascinating presentation if not delivered at too blistering a pace to really keep up with it, but here are some numbers she came up with:
Up next: Key issues facing the future of armor procurement...
-- Christian
Greetings folks. Just an FYI -- I've been at a military armor protection conference today getting the latest insight on body and vehicle armor, active protection systems, advanced materials and other protective equipment.
First bit of news comes from an official with the Army's combat developments directorate at Fort Benning who described some upcoming "soldier protection demonstrations" that will take a look at various new technology solutions to common problems on the battlefield. This is the same way the Army came up with its vastly-improved body armor, or IOTV.
The first initiative is a combat vehicle crewman armor suite that recognizes the tight confines of a vehicle and its various entry ports and takes advantage of the vehicles inherent armor protection. But the official, John Yancey, recognized that Humvee gunners and other vehicle gunners might need more armor for blast mitigation in an IED scenario.
It all needs to fit into a new philosophy the Army wants vendors to adhere to in armor design that calls for modularization in armor components. In other words, Yancey wants to give commanders the leeway to add or subtract armor components based on mission and threat. A door kicker only needs a plate carrier, a vehicle gunner needs arm, shoulder, face and neck protection, he said.
Another SPD going on right now at Benning is looking into hearing protection and enhancement. Kinda like "hunters ear" already on the market.
Yancey also talked about an upcoming SPD on lower extremity protection, including six vendors who've submitted products such as ballistic shorts, pants and chaps. Yancey admitted no Soldier was going to have to wear Kevlar pants on patrol, but a vehicle gunner might really appreciate them. He also mentioned that the Army was taking another look at whether the current padding system in the advanced combat helmet is making the grade.
Stay tuned for more from the Military Armor Protection conference taking place in Alexandria, Va., today and tomorrow.
-- Christian
The NATO International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has made significant progress in the country despite the command being “under-resourced,” the alliance’s top officer in the country said today.
The Department of the Army today joined the Department of Defense in announcing May 19 the alert of four Army National Guard Brigade Combat Teams for planned rotations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Northrop Grumman has been selected by the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) to provide the AAR-54 Missile Warning System (MWS) for its CH-47F Chinook helicopters.
A new organization dedicated to Indian Ocean regional port and maritime security has been launched. The South Asia Regional Port Security Cooperative, composed of nine nations
The Defense Department needs to worry more about what warfighters need right now than what they may need down the road, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said last night.
The Pentagon notified Congress on Monday of the possible sale of 48 F-16 fighters to Romania as part of a deal valued at 4.5 billion dollars.
A House of Representatives committee has voted down attempts by Republicans to restore more than $200 million for a planned U.S. missile defense system in Europe.
Representatives of 109 countries have gathered in Dublin for a 12-day conference aimed at a global ban on cluster munitions. Supporters of the ban say it is "now or never" for a deal.
The southern African contribution to the African Standby Force (ASF) to fulfil the African Union's (AU) peacekeeping ambitions will depend heavily on South Africa, but with its army already overstretched
Northrop Grumman's Shipbuilding sector reached an important construction milestone May 18 when it completed the final hull welds of the Virginia-class submarine New Mexico (SSN 779).
A test team with the 658th Aeronautical Systems Squadron completed the first Global Positioning System guided weapons release from an MQ-9 Reaper May 13 at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division at China Lake, Calif.
In practice, the requirements set by the Government for the Swedish Armed Forces imply a change of course compared with most recent defence resolution.
The Defense Department today announced force rotations for Iraq and Afghanistan, including upcoming active-duty deployments later this year and alerts to Army National Guard units to deploy in spring 2009 and 2010.
The Lower House, although reluctantly, is supporting Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop's position that the Netherlands should keep its M261 cluster-bombs.
The Boeing Company has been awarded a $5.2 million U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) contract to demonstrate the effectiveness of Guidance Integrated Fuzing (GIF) technology developed under the Seeker Integrated Target Endgame Sensor (SITES) program.
The TP400-D6 engine has achieved another programme development milestone with the successful completion of its bird strike test.
Well, it looks like Boeing has taken a step closer to making its air-to-ground laser blaster a reality with a recent test shoot from a specially-constructed C-130 sitting on the ground.
Boeing has fired a high-energy chemical laser aboard a C-130H aircraft in ground tests for the first time, achieving a key milestone for the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program.
The successful laser firing occurred May 13 at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
"First firing of the high-energy laser aboard the ATL aircraft shows that the program continues to make good progress toward giving the warfighter an ultra-precision engagement capability that will dramatically reduce collateral damage," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems.
After conducting a series of additional laser tests on the ground and in the air, the program will fire the chemical laser in-flight at mission-representative ground targets. The test team will fire the laser through a rotating turret that extends through the aircraft's belly.
We wrote about this a while back after an interview with program officials during a conference call on the airborne laser program -- a 747 equipped with a laser designed to shoot down ballistic missiles. Well, looks like Boeing made good on their prediction and the program remains on track to create a laser gunship.
"Later this year, we will fire the laser in-flight at ground targets, demonstrating the military utility of this transformational directed energy weapon," Fancher said.
Last year, the high-energy laser concluded laboratory testing at Kirtland, demonstrating reliable operations in more than 50 firings.
ATL, which Boeing is developing for the U.S. Department of Defense, will destroy, damage or disable targets with little to no collateral damage, supporting missions on the battlefield and in urban operations.
Boeing's ATL industry team includes L-3 Communications/Brashear, which made the laser turret, and HYTEC Inc., which made various structural elements of the weapon system.
-- Christian
[EDITOR: Good morning folks. I want to introduce to you a new guest blogger we're going to feature here occasionally. He's a defense insider and that's about all I can say here, but you'll recognize his post from last week on the HK416.
It's probably the jading effect of being so close to the biz that's made our new team mate boil over, so for now, we'll just call him "military curmudgeon" as he tells us how it really is.]
Earmarks are earmarks. I don't care what is being done with those earmarks right now.
That is not the case, from the perspective of American warfighting capability.
It is the DoD's responsibility to tell the President/Congress what they need, not for an individual politician to decide for himself what the military needs.
You assume that the people running the DoD actually have the best interests of the fighting man and woman at heart.
They don't. Not when it comes to funding unsexy things like trucks, amphibious ships and cargo planes over their favored toys.
The various services -- who write the requirements that DoD sends to Congress -- game the system to get the favored toys paid for, while ignoring the unglamorous and non-career enhancing.
The USAF's fascination with the F22 over everything has been much commented on here.
How the USAF shorts cargo plane and ground support plane production has been a US Army complaint for as long as there has been a separate air force. The A-10 would not exist at all were it not for legislative log rolling that over ruled the "Fighter pilot generals."
The Marines are in the same position versus the US Navy when it comes to amphibious transports with carriers, fighter planes and subs playing the "F22 role."
The US Army Generals from the "Treadhead," "Grunt," and "Gunbunnie" unions (aka Armor, Infantry and Artillery branches) always short the Army supply of trucks during peace time. (The USMC does not do separate unions, but they short trucks as well, since, hey! That is what the Army is for.)
All of the above play budget games shorting unsexy but mission critical trucks, cargo planes and troop transports for their favored projects.
There are no "white hats" in all of this.
This is the normal "clash of competing interests legislative sausage making that our founding fathers anticipated in the Constitution. It is not efficient or pretty, but it works.
The usual results when legislative reformers try and 'reduce the corruption' of normal legislative sausage making is that it empowers the permanent bureaucracy at the expense of both the troops and the general public.
Legislative sausage making has the ultimate accountability of elections.
The Permanent Bureaucracy is accountable only to itself.
-- Military Curmudgeon
Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday called on governments to adopt an international convention banning the use of cluster munitions, on the eve of a conference on the issue in Dublin.
A Taliban suicide bomber killed four Afghans on Sunday in the heart of a town taken from rebels five months ago and a foreign soldier in a US-led force died in another blast, officials said.
InterSense Incorporated, a market leader in precision motion technology, today announced its IS-900 motion tracking system has been installed in the U.S. Army's Soldier Battle Lab located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Thirty years ago, on May 15, 1978, a missile defense system was placed on combat duty to protect Moscow as the capital city of the Soviet Union.
China's military said Sunday that all nuclear facilities in the country's earthquake-hit southwest were "safe and secure."
In a "remote village" west of Salt Lake City, a 2,000-pound enhanced guided bomb unit-15 slips suddenly through an open window of a 30-foot building with immaculate precision.
Air Force senior leaders are asking all Airmen for suggestions on a name for the service's newest tanker aircraft, the KC-45A.
The U.S. Air Force found Northrop Grumman Corporation's bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers superior to Boeing's in four of the five most important selection criteria.
Boeing has achieved six years of consecutive on-time deliveries for the Minuteman III missile program with the recent delivery of the 593rd missile guidance set (MGS) to the U.S. Air Force.
The National Training Center here has made significant progress in improving force-protection training for Army brigade combat teams as they prepare for future deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Documental Solutions, a leader in defence market analysis, has recently reviewed its analysis of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) Region's Command, Control and Communications (C3) market for the period 2008-2015.
Coalition airpower integrated with coalition ground forces in Iraq and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan during operations May 17, according to Combined Air and Space Operations Center officials here.
The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a $38 million contract modification to perform a range of work on USS Hawaii (SSN-776) during its post-shakedown availability (PSA).
A Non Line-of-Sight-Launch System (NLOS-LS) Precision Attack Missile was successfully launched May 15 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., taking the missile system a step closer toward providing the warfighter a much-needed precision weapon system.
Pratt & Whitney Canada and Helicopters of Russia have signed today in Moscow a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to produce the PW127TS engine for Russia's new generation, twin-engine medium helicopter MI-38.
The Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) today seeks to demonstrate to the nation the progress made by the defence industry in delivering an ethical defence sector in the UK.
The Boeing Company's Rotorcraft Systems division in Philadelphia today resumed operations on the H-47 Chinook helicopter production line.
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on Congress and the Pentagon to keep their eyes on the ball, namely the war we are fighting now, instead of the war we might face later, maybe.
It sounded rational and, perhaps, even seemed a sound reminder that the nation can't spend everything it might want to spend on the military.
Gates' message was heard loud and clear on the Hill. Today, the top defense appropriator -- read money man -- in the House of Representatives boldly stepped in front of the nation (also known as the floor of the House) and said Gates' speech was "simply a rationalization of short-term budget decisions made in the waning months of this Administration. Now when Rep. John Murtha, (D-Penn.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, says something like this, you can bet he has a larger point to deliver. And he did. Murtha said the administration is effectively waging a war without a strategy to guide it.
"We need a National Security Strategy to identify both the near-term and long-term threats to this country. We need a vigorous debate to achieve this strategy -- this hasn't happened since the Cold War," Murtha said. Then he sent a zinger that must have sent some shock waves through intelligence community budgeters: "This country spends more money on intelligence than all the nations of the world combined, and as I've observed our intelligence is about as accurate as Punxsutawney Phil -- 50 percent. 50 percent is unacceptable." Perhaps Murtha has his eyes set on at least one major cut to an IC program.
But in the longer term, Murtha said, "It is time to look beyond Iraq and focus on future threats." To that end, he claimed the emergency supplemental spending bill being introduced on the House floor "provides our military with equipment that will prepare them to face future threats under any scenario; not only to fight a war, but to prevent a war." Then he listed some of the bigger ticket items in the supplemental, including:
$3.6 billion to procure 15 C-17 aircraft
$2.5 billion to procure 34 C-130 aircraft
$750 million for National Guard and Reserve equipment
$1.5 billion for Humvees
$3 billion for Medium and Heavy Tactical Trucks
$500 million for Army and Marine Corps Facility Maintenance and Repairs (including the barracks that need repairs)
$300 million for facility maintenance and repairs at military medical facilities
$570 million for treatment and research activities within the Defense Health Program.
-- Colin Clark
Commercial satellite imagery has revealed an extensive nuclear missile site in central China with nearly sixty launch pads for medium-range missiles capable of striking Russia or India, a researcher said Thursday.
The United States has warned Beijing over reported use of Chinese weapons by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the Asian giant's continued sale of arms to Iran, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said.
The U.S. Air Force today announced that a team led by Lockheed Martin has won the competition to build the next-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) Space System program, known as GPS III.
Raytheon Company has entered the U.S. Navy's High Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Weapons Concept (HAAWC) competition, successfully demonstrating a new weapon system -- the Fish Hawk -- March 21 at the Eglin flight demonstration range in the Gulf of Mexico.
Algeria has asked Russia to deliver between 14 and 16 additional Su-30 Flanker fighters in exchange for the MiG-29 Fulcrum aircraft it was supposed to receive under a contract that was terminated this year, a Russian business daily said.
Thanks to technology advances in small, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, service-members on the ground may be able to get an inside track on what lies ahead, literally.
The U.S. Army Joint Munition and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command has awarded General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products a contract to develop a Lightweight .50 Caliber (12.7mm) Machine Gun (LW50MG) weapon system.
The DoD's CPI program provides methods, tools, and philosophies that can be used to improve the way the Army works through training and certifying its workforce.
May 14 marked another significant event when members of the Iraqi air force flew its first medical evacuation mission since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Nothing is official yet but Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), may throw his hat in the ring to become ranking member of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, responsible for overseeing space, missile defense and nuclear weapons programs. Two senior Pentagon officials have asked Franks to make the try.
After all, the Arizona conservative may be the GOPs most outspoken missile defense advocate remaining in the House after the election. Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), former presidential candidate and the departing ranking member of the whole committee, Jim Saxton (R-NJ), current ranking member of the powerful airland subcommittee, and Terry Everett (R-Ala.), current ranking member of the strategic forces subcommittee, all plan to leave the House at the end of the year.
The ranks of missile defense advocates will be further reduced by the departure of Democrat Bud Cramer of Alabama, who is one of the few Democrats on the committee who has consistently fought for missile defense funding.
Franks told me yesterday morning at a breakfast sponsored by the National Defense University that he hasnt made up his mind about running for the subcommittee spot. He conceded that he might be interested.
-- Colin Clark
Russia's military chief urged NATO Thursday to take steps to stop a build-up of arms in its neighbour Georgia and warned that conflict could break out if no action is taken.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Korea of AIM-9X Sidewinder Missiles as well as associated equipment and services.
The Army hit a milestone in its continuing efforts to provide a capability to counter the indirect fire threat with the 100th successful intercept of a rocket or mortar round fired at high value Multi-National Corps-Iraq assets in late March.
[EDITOR: From a DT friend (who prefers to remain anonymous) on his chop of the AWG's fight for their HK-416s]
The AWG folks are a special US Army task force to deal with IED threats that has turned into a semi-covert group of trigger pulling "trouble shooters." They got the HK416 because of their semi-official/semi-covert status and then got them taken away when Sen. Coburn both noticed this and embarrassed the Army small arms procurement brass by pointing it out.
To be fair to the Brass, they are in a no-win situation because small arms are a religious faith where true believers will not be swayed by real data.
In the realm of hard "non-religious data," there seem to be two major knocks against the M4: fouling after lots of firing, and excessive jamming in sandy conditions. Controlled tests in sandstorm-of-the-century conditions indicate the M4 is worse than the HK416 and FN SCAR, but all are in the 99-percentile reliability range.
To quote something a friend of mine sent on the issue:
"Excessive fouling depends on how many major firefights you get into before you can pull maintenance. All three systems use some sort of cylinder-and-piston arrangement to manage the gases. In the M16-type system, it's in the bolt carrier itself, while the other two restrict it to a small area near the gas port. They all have to be cleaned, eventually. The competition community has developed some M16 gas system tweaks that might interest serious trigger-pullers.
As a professional, your weapon's health comes first, just like your horse would if you were cavalry. If someone gave me one of each of these weapons, and several thousand rounds of ammo, I might develop a clear favorite. I doubt highly that I would find one totally unfit for my uses."
I have also been told that a number of M-16 jam problems would disappear if the H&K M16 magazine were adopted as standard issue. It is "...the absolute best out there. Built, and priced, like a BMW.
In the particular case of the HK416 and the AWG, Sen. Coburn would have done better by the troops by earmarking money for HK416.
Since Coburn is a Republican "Small Federal Government"/anti-earmark true believer, this was the result.
From the military procurement point of view, earmarks actually play a very important role in defense readiness in non-glamorous things like transport ships, trucks, and planes.
Rep Les Aspins 1980s earmarks of extra 10-ton HEMET trucks gave the US Army the truck transport to pull off the famous left hook in the 1991 Gulf War.
Sen Trent Lotts earmarks of amphibious ships have given the USMC 20% of its current amphibious fleet.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrichs earmarks of extra C-130s and Rep Dana Rohrabachers earmarks of extra C-17s are the wings resupplying troops in Afghanistan.
Outside of those non-glamorous areas, DoD earmarks are rightly seen as pernicious.
-- [Anonymous]
The U.S. Air Force announced it plans to construct a large botnet. The term Botnet is jargon for a collection of software robots, referred to as bots, that take over and run autonomously or by remote control on infected computers. These bots present a serious security threat to the computer owner. Cyber militaries and hackers leverage the combined power of hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of millions of computers that have been compromised to pump out spam e-mail or disable targeted servers by overwhelming them with Internet traffic.
There are over 100 million computers that have been compromised and are now part of botnets. The largest botnet is thought to owned and operated by the RBN -- Russian Business Network. They lease capacity of their botnet for spamming and other more sinister purposes. The second largest botnet is owned and operated by the Chinese military. The estimated size of their botnet is put at 85 million and growing fast.
Military Applications
Espionage - collecting information from the network of computers that have been infected with the malicious code. Collecting keystroke information that contains log-ins, IDs and sensitive information or actually capturing screen shots of what the user is doing.
DDoS - the network of computers can be remotely commanded to start flooding a target system with transaction, overwhelming it until it shuts down
A bit late to the game, the U.S. Air Force has to rapidly construct their botnet. In the May edition of the Armed Forces Journal, Col. Charles Williamson III outlined the cyber warfare strategy being hashed out by the U.S. military. There are reports that the plan calls for using the publics computers to create this offensive cyber weapon. There is no question in the minds of many who are working in the cyber warfare field that the U.S. must create cyber weapons and that a botnet is just one of the many that need to be in our arsenal. But the devil is in the details!
Even the once-vaunted National Reconnaissance Office, builder of Americas spy satellites, is having serious trouble managing the enormously complex and expensive satellite programs under its wing.
Ive confirmed that, for the second time since early March, the NRO has been stripped of Milestone Decision Authority on a program -- the power to decide whether a program can progress from one stage of a program to the next stage. The program is so highly classified that we cant discuss its name or what it does. The confirmation came from a former senior intelligence official.
In early March I broke the story that the NRO had had decision authority withheld by senior intelligence and defense officials about a new program called BASIC, or Broad Area Satellite Imagery Collection. Questions were raised in the Pentagon, by industry and Congress about whether BASIC would violate the Bush Administrations national space policy directing the military and intelligence community to rely on commercial satellites for general mapping purposes. There were also serious concerns raised about whether the NRO could, on a broader basis, successfully execute the program.
At the time, DNI and NRO officials were careful to note that milestone decision authorities are reviewed every year for all intelligence agencies. But sources in the intelligence community made it clear to me then that the NRO has stumbled badly in recent years and needed the sort of close program supervision that the NSA and Air Force have been subject to for the last few years.
The Pentagon stripped the Air Force of decision authority for space and several other programs in March 2005 by Michael Wynne, who was then the Pentagon's acting acquisition czar. That authority was restored for several non-space programs in January 2006 but the undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technloogy and logistics, John Young, still retains that authority for unclassfied space programs.
-- Colin Clark
In today's afternoon headlines at Military.com we have a story on the shut-down of Boeing's CH-47 line in PA.
Army criminal investigators are looking into problems found in two military helicopters on a production line at a Boeing Co. plant in suburban Philadelphia, prompting the company to shut down the line.
A Boeing spokesman said Wednesday that aircraft at the plant were being inspected. The company didn't disclose specifics about why it shut down the H-47 Chinook line at Boeing Rotorcraft Systems plant in Ridley Township, Pa., on Tuesday. Employees reported to work Wednesday morning, but the line had yet to fully resume operations.
U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, a Democrat whose district includes the plant, said he was told during a briefing that wires that appeared to be broken or severed were found in one helicopter and a suspicious washer was found in a second.
Sestak said the assessment was preliminary and he expected the findings of a more thorough review would be available later Wednesday. He praised Boeing's handling of the situation, and said it was too early to speculate on what happened.
Dave Foster, an Army spokesman, said in an e-mail that normal production was expected to resume shortly.
"At present, this is thought to be an isolated incident, confined to these two aircraft," Foster said.
Foster said the Defense Contract Management Agency was overseeing the situation.
All aircraft on the premises were being inspected, said Jack Satterfield, a company spokesman. But he said the shutdown was isolated to one line at the plant and did not affect helicopters already in use by the military.
The Defense Criminal Investigative Service had agents on the premises conducting interviews, said Gary Comerford, a spokesman for the agency. Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Christopher Grey confirmed the agency was also involved in the investigation, but said he could not comment on it.
The Chinook is known as the Army's workhorse aircraft. It is used to transport troops and supplies.
Boeing is currently producing new Chinooks for the Army, as well as updating older models.
Now, I'm sure these are isolated incidents. But still, with a tough protest fight going on in the CSAR-X program, this certianly can't help matters in that arena at all.
Boeing's sure taking some licks these days, huh?
-- Christian
All right, so does Gates have a point? As you'll remember, yesterday DefSec Gates said the services are stuck in a rut...they can't pull their gaze away from high-tech programs that have nothing to do with today's bloody fight but rely on assumptions forged into the plan back in the '90s.
So what I've done is to set up a survey to see what you all think. Lemme know...
From the front page of Military.com:
COLUMBUS, Miss. -- It's an old adage that the Guard and Reserve are the red-headed step children of "Big Army." It's the guys on active duty that get the newest, shiniest, priciest piece of gear while the part-timers get the cast offs -- last year's equipment on its last legs.
Well, that's about to change in a few weeks when the Army National Guard receives its first of 200 UH-72A Lakota helicopters to replace its inventory of Vietnam-era UH-1 Huey and OH-58 Kiowa utility helos and some UH-60 Blackhawks.
Yes, the Big Army's already gotten about 20 of the new Lakotas to free up some of its Blackhawks for duty in Iraq, but the so-called "light utility helicopter" is purpose built for the Guard to use for domestic medivac situations and other state-assigned "general support" missions.
"For a lot of missions in the U.S. we don't need a Blackhawk," said Col. Neil Thurgood, director of the Army's utility helicopters project office, during a visit to the manufacturer's Columbus assembly plant May 9. "So, we're going to save the taxpayers some money."
Based on the Eurocopter EC-145 -- a commercial bantam-weight helo used commonly for hospital "life-flight" missions -- the UH-72 takes advantage of all the modern amenities typical of its class. With two engines, advanced rotors and a glass cockpit, pilots say the Lakota is easy -- and safer -- to fly than its predecessors, particularly the venerable Huey.
"I've been flying Hueys for years and you've got to be on the controls all the time," Thurgood said. But with the Lakota's advanced flight controls and auto pilot, "squeezing the stick the entire time" isn't in the cards anymore.
"I was coming into the airfield and all I had to do was turn some knobs and dials until I was in a hover, the auto pilot did it all," Thurgood added.
For Guard pilots who already have some stick time, it'll be an easy transition to the UH-72, Army officials here said. Pilots will have to attend a 10-day course on the Lakota at a Eurocopter facility in Grand Prairie, Texas, before they fly their home-station birds, and maintainers will have to do roughly the same thing to get up to speed on the LUH's modern systems.
New Guard pilots will simply leave initial flight training and attend the same 10-day course as their more experienced brethren.
"The transition won't be a problem at all," said Lt. Col. Jim Brashear, LUH product manager.
But a helicopter that program officials claim is one of the few Army aviation contracts that's adhering to projected cost and schedule timelines does have some limitations. For one, the LUH isn't built for a combat environment, so Guard units who deploy to a war zone won't get to take their shiny new helos with them.
"They'll still be able to fly their Blackhawks when they deploy," said Keith Roberson, deputy director of the Army's utility helicopters project office.
While officials here cite the LUH as an example of what can go right with an aviation program, the helo has seen its share of controversy. In July 2006, after the Army awarded the $3 billion contract to American Eurocopter -- a subsidiary of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company -- competitor McDonnell Douglas Helicopters protested the decision, throwing the program's future into doubt.
The UH-72 emerged from the fight unscathed, but critics later charged the aircraft was ill suited to some environments, including so-called "high-hot" conditions like mountaintop wildfires and the deserts of California.
"There are no areas in the United States that we think we can't take this aircraft," Roberson countered.
The Lakota is being manufactured partly in Germany; with final assembly here at this newly-built plant in rural Mississippi. Through the rest of this year, more of the aircraft will be assembled at the Columbus plant, with the entire end-to-end production of Lakotas coming from domestic manufacturers by mid-2009, officials say.
The Lakota's foreign designers "are fulfilling their promise to shift production from Germany to the U.S.," Thurgood said. "That's contributing to our industrial base and our economy."
-- Christian
Has China "secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region"? Thomas Harding, writing in the London Daily Telegraph early this month, has declared that it is.
According to Hardy, "Satellite imagery, passed to The Daily Telegraph, shows that a substantial harbour has been built which could house a score of nuclear ballistic missile submarines and a host of aircraft carriers."
The threat from Chinese submarines, long touted by "hard liners" in the West, now includes the ballistic missile submarine base and protective tunnels for the craft being constructed at Sanya on the southern tip of Hainan Island in the South China Sea.
The report comes almost simultaneously with word that a Chinese Type 094 (NATO Jin-class) ballistic missile submarine was sighted at the base in satellite images. Also visible was a newly constructed pier that appears to be a demagnetization facility for submarines. Demagnetization is conducted before a submarine deploys to remove residual magnetic fields to reduce the craft's vulnerability to magnetic mines.
The satellite image was taken by the QuickBird commercial satellite on 27 February 2008, and purchased by the Federation of American Scientists from DigitalGlobe.
China is believed to have completed two Jin-class SSBNs with at least one more unit under construction. (An older SSBN is also in service; see below.) The U.S. Intelligence Community estimates that China would probably build five SSBNs if it wants to have a near-continuous deterrent at sea. Each Jin-class SSSBN will carry 12 JL-2 nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. A "score" of such submarines -- as reported in some newspaper accounts -- seems highly unlikely.
While some Western defense analysts as well as journalists are touting this new Chinese capability, it should be noted that there have been submarine tunnels in southern Hainan for probably two decades or more and that similar (albeit smaller) tunnels are also found at the Northern Fleet's Jianggezhuang naval base. Indeed, China has long constructed tunnels for military (and civilian) purposes in the even of a nuclear conflict. This writer visited some of those near the base complex of Dairen, near the Soviet-Russian border.
Further, while submarines could be "hidden" in the tunnels, they could be observed by U.S. reconnaissance satellites as they enter and leave the tunnels. This possibility, coupled with the likely noise level of the Jin-class SSBNs would increase their vulnerability to U.S. detection and surveillance methods.
Also, in wartime, any submarines in the tunnels at the outbreak of hostilities would be vulnerable to the tunnels being easily blocked by U.S. conventional or nuclear weapons.
Certainly the Chinese Navy is being modernized, although it is significantly smaller than it was during the Cold War era. The slow development pace of China's SSBN force, the failure of the first Chinese SSBN, the Type 092 (NATO Xia) completed in 1988, to have ever made a deployment, and persistent reports that a ballistic missile for the SSBNs is not yet available, raise major questions about this aspect of the "Chinese threat."
China's new underground nuclear submarine base close to vital sea lanes in Southeast Asia has raised US concerns, with experts calling for a shoring up of alliances in the region to check Beijing's growing military clout.
Between eight and 12 KC-135 Stratotankers from Eielson Air Force Base depart each day, providing fuel to as many as 18 aircraft in one mission for Northern Edge 2008.
Rebels in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia claimed Monday to have shot down two Georgian spy planes in the same day, Interfax news agency reported, but Georgia immediately dismissed the claim.
A manufacturing plant in southwest China has started to assemble Russian-designed Mi-171 transport helicopters, one of Russia's key arms exports, the Russian business daily Vedomosti said on Monday.
Venezuela is planning to conclude several contracts with Russia next month on the purchase of military equipment worth at least $2 billion, a leading Russian business daily said on Monday.
Air Force and U.S. officials forecast a serious shortage of scientists and engineers.
Balad Air Base has been chosen by Air Force leaders to be the test base for a weapons prepositioning initiative expected to save the Air Force approximately $1.3 million per year in transportation costs.
China is building up its military defences to deter US intervention in case of war with Taiwan, the island's defence ministry said Monday.
Defense Department officials here are developing a proposal to finance university research on national security-related issues, a senior Pentagon official said May 7.
Army Staff Sgt. Joshua Flowers has served combat deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and understands firsthand what warfighters need to succeed.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Australia of AEGIS Combat System components as well as associated equipment and services.
NAVAIR’s Support and Commercial Derivative Aircraft Program Office, responding to a direct request from Afghanistan’s President and Minister of Defense via the Navy’s International Program Office, was directed to buy four Antonov AN-32 "Cline" aircraft for the Afghan National Army Air Corps (ANAAC) through the Foreign Military Sales program.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Strategic Airlift Capability of C-17 Globemaster III aircraft as well as associated equipment and services.
The U.S. Air Force found Northrop Grumman Corporation's bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers superior to Boeing's in four of the five most important selection criteria.
Too often, the lawmakers can't agree on where there is waste in government. The problem is that everything in Washington, D.C. seems to have an army of lobbyists and powerful lawmakers playing defense at the slightest hint of trouble.
Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace has signed a contract with the Armed Forces' Logistics Organisation for the delivery of a new Combat System Integration Infrastructure, a new passive sonar system and the upgrading of a tactical simulator for Norway's six Ula Class submarines.
From the US Navy aboard the USS Harry S Truman:
When the words foreign object debris (FOD) come to mind the last thing someone thinks about is an owl. On the morning of March 17 on board USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), an owl is exactly what was found. What might have been a mishap, ended on a happier note thanks to a few Sailors' attention to detail.
"I was the safety behind the 300 jet. That's why I probably ended up there first," said Aviation Structural Mechanic (Equipment) 3rd class Jeremy Smith, a Sailor attached to the "Ragin' Bulls" of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 37.
He was called over by Aviation Electronics Technician Airman Apprentice Tony McJohnston, also part of VFA 37. What they found was a screech owl.
Aviation Structural Mechanic 2nd class Zachary Gorman who is attached to Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron (HS) 7, the "Dusty Dogs," is a licensed falconer in the U.S. He was called to the scene to check the status of the bird.
"When I got there, I checked him over to make sure he didn't have any broken wings and if he was dehydrated or malnourished," said Gorman.
Gorman and the flight deck medical team nursed the owl, or "Fod" as Flight Deck Control liked to call him, back to health by giving him a shot of sugar water to help rehydrate him.
Gorman said after treating the bird they found no life-threatening problems.
"For the most part the bird was healthy, just a little tired," said Gorman. He also made sure "Fod" was okay in a box the crew dubbed his makeshift "stateroom." Gorman has been working with birds of prey since the age of 12 and said he was more than happy to help the animal.
"I've worked with a lot of owls throughout the years, but I never thought I'd have to deal with one on a carrier in the middle of the Gulf" said Gorman.
The owl could not reside on board indefinitely so they came up with another plan.
(Gouge NC and Aero-News)
-- Christian
I thought this was an interesting story in today's Washington Post. It speaks to the extreme skepticism early on with reports that the Syrians were building an illicit nuke plant that the Israelis blew up a few months ago.
I remember attending a roundtable lunch a few days after the attack where nuclear "experts" cast serious doubt on the contention that the Syrian facility that was bombed actually was used for nuke fuel processing or anything else weapons related.
But the Washington Post story today speaks to the camouflaging capabilities governments are now employing to conceal their intentions. It's an interesting look at the lengths to which governments will and can conceal their secret efforts from overhead surveillance and also it shows some of the laborious techniques they'll employ to send out red herrings.
Experience With Syria Exemplifies Challenge That Detection Presents
Syria went to extraordinary lengths to conceal its undeclared construction of a plutonium-producing nuclear reactor from spies in the sky and on the ground in recent years, according to a draft report by independent nuclear experts briefed by Bush administration officials.
The effectiveness of the camouflage effort raises new doubts about the prospects for certain detection of future clandestine nuclear weapons-related activities, the Institute for Science and International Security concluded in its report on the Syrian facility. "This case serves as a sobering reminder of the difficulty of identifying secret nuclear activities," the report said.
According to the ISIS report to be released this week, the fake roof was just the start. Syrian engineers went to "astonishing lengths" to hide cooling and ventilation systems, power lines and other features that normally are telltale signs of a nuclear reactor, authors David Albright and Paul Brannan wrote.
For example, the main building appears small and shallow from the air, but it was evidently built over large underground chambers -- tens of meters in depth -- that were large enough to house the nuclear reactor, as well as a reserve water-storage tank and pools for spent fuel rods, the report said.
An extensive network of electrical lines appears to have been buried in trenches. Traditional water-cooling towers were replaced with an elaborate underground system that discharged into the Euphrates River. And, instead of using smokestack-like ventilation towers prominent at many reactor sites, the ventilation system appears to have been built along the walls of the building, with louver openings not visible from the air, the authors contended.
The ISIS report noted that early skepticism that Syria was building a reactor there was based partly on the observable absence of revealing features. "The current domestic and international capabilities to detect nuclear facilities and activities are not adequate to prevent more surprises in the future," the report warned.
And here's the ISIS report to pick over for yourself...
-- Christian
This was passed along to me from a source on the EFP retro-armoring for MRAPs currently in Iraq. Looks as if we have some fidelity on the numbers (and this is also posted in the comments section of the previous post, but for the benefit of those that don't readily dive into pots of boiling oil, I cross-post it here).
From MSNBC:
Meanwhile, at Camp Arifjahn in Kuwait, the military is reinforcing some of the blast-resistant vehicles with additional side armor and it shipped as many as 20 of the newly upgraded vehicles to the battlefront in April. An additional 30 are to go into Iraq beginning this month.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. James Hadley, who is overseeing the upgrades in Kuwait, said not every MRAP is getting the additional armor, which increases the vehicle's weight by as much as 5,000 pounds. The extra protection, he said, is being added to vehicles destined for hot battleground areas.
The additional armor is shipped in kits to Kuwait and installed on the MRAPs, which only recently arrived at a facility dedicated to outfitting the vehicles with antennas and equipment before being sent to troops.
An extra 5,000 pounds added to a vehicle that already weighs in at 19 tons in some cases? Ouch.
An our source tells me...
EFP protection is included as standard equipment on all improved MRAP I vehicles built as a result of the MRAP awards announced 18 Dec 2007.
Additional improved MRAP I production contracts issued after that date include the same EFP protection requirement. For example, the BAE-TVS Caiman had a further award of 1024 trucks added after that Dec 16, 2007 award.
Delivery requirements for additional armor kits for earlier fielded MRAP vehicles were added at roughly the same time.
The Army and USMC are both getting deliveries of improved MRAP I vehicles between May 2008 and Dec 2008 per the contracts I mentioned. The same applies to EFP protection upgrades for fielded MRAP vehicles.
Now we're all spooled up. Thanks to readers and other sources for the gouge.
-- Christian
The army deployed across much of Lebanon on Sunday after Hezbollah ceded control of west Beirut but clashes raged on in the north and in the Druze mountains as Arab foreign ministers held crisis talks.
Transiting through the Strait of Magellan on board USS George Washington May 9, the commander of Carrier Strike Group 8 explained the importance of interoperability and partnership building in the Southern Hemisphere.
Analysts are actively debating the possible outcomes of an armed conflict between Georgia and self-proclaimed Abkhazia that seceded from Georgia in 1992.
On April 30th, the South African Air Force received and accepted its first new Gripen fighter aircraft opening a new chapter in the forces modernisation and transformation.
Lockheed Martin has received a direct commercial sale contract from the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) for Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods (ATP) for the nation’s F-16 Block 52 aircraft.
Defence Minister Phil Goff today signed a contract for the purchase of new training/light utility helicopters for the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
The Ministry of Defence has today, Thursday 8 May 2008, announced the provisional selection of Piranha 5 as the preferred design for the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) Utility Vehicle, the first of the Army's programme for a new force of battlefield armoured vehicles.
Raytheon Company and Emirates Advanced Investments of the United Arab Emirates have signed a cooperative development agreement for a semiactive laser guided 70 mm (2.75-inch) rocket designed to provide increased precision and lethality compared with conventional unguided rockets.
New wings are the answer to Air Force concerns on the aging A-10 Thunderbolt II, an airframe flying since 1975.
Work has begun on a review of the U.S. military’s roles and missions, senior defense officials said here today.
Coalition airpower integrated with coalition ground forces in Iraq and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan during operations May 9, according to Combined Air and Space Operations Center officials here.
Cubic Defense Applications, a defense subsidiary of Cubic Corporation, has received a potential $9.5 million contract from the 675th/689th Armament Systems Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, to supply Cubic's latest air combat training system to the Polish Air Force.
General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics, has been selected by the UK Ministry of Defence as the provisionally preferred bidder for the Utility Vehicle Design (UVD) for the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES).
It was 1994 when the Pentagon last engaged in a seminal examination of what it does, how it does it and why. In Pentagon-speak these issues are known in a neat shorthand as "roles and missions."
At a Pentagon briefing today, two senior defense officials discussed how they will approach the new roles and missions work, outlining the seven main areas of focus. The one issue Congress told the Pentagon to study is whether there are unnecessary duplications of capabilities among and between the four services and other arms of the Pentagon. In addition, the officials told reporters that unmanned aircraft systems, intra-theater lift, cyber war, irregular warfare, Pentagon governance issues, and DoDs roles and missions in the interagency world.
Note that a senior defense official said that the analysis will be done within existing budget constraints. A senior military officer said that the combatant commanders will have a great deal of input during this effort because the department is looking at how the services and other agencies can work better together rather than as a food fight between services for resources and responsibilities. For example, Strategic Command will be a key player in the analysis done about cyber warfare and Special Operations Command will play a major role in the look at irregular warfare.
One of the sleeper areas may turn out to be the look at interagency roles. The senior defense official said the military has learned a great deal about how effectively it works with the other parts of the government since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, noting that the current structure was developed during the Cold War and may need changing.
Congress ordered the Pentagon to do this roles and missions analysis in its 2008 Defense Authorization Act. In addition to the long-standing Quadrennial Defense Review, Congress said that the military should analyze its roles and missions in time for the 2010 budget submission. That would bring it in about a year before the next QDR. Henceforth, the military will perform a roles and missions analysis before each QDR.
The last stab at this sort of thing was the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces. The commission took a year to deliver its final report, Directions for Defense, to the nation, issuing it in May 1995.
-- Colin Clark
Gizmodo has an item about a new miracle paint that makes whatever it coats invisible to radar:
A German inventor has developed a paint called AR 1 that can hide a vehicle from radar, and most importantly, "all militarily relevant frequencies." How it works is unclear, though one test researcher proposes it's either by reflecting radar waves in a pattern so they cancel one another out, or by utilizing microscopic magnets to absorb radar radiation. And no, it won't get you out of speeding tickets.The inventor's story is an interesting one, involving thousands of hours of lab trial and error, as well as international military interest in his product ... that far outshined the response from his own country's military.
But apparently the most promising and equitable use for such a paint could be civilian. Airport towers and buildings have a long history of interfering with flight control radars. And to simply make them disappear would be quite usefulas opposed to calling hangar 12 in for a landing or something.
(Gouge: CM)
-- Ward
The Nigerian government is near collapse and rival factions are vying for power in that troubled part of the world, or at least a visitor to the Army War College this week would think that to be the case.
Since taking flight for the first time here in October 2007, Reapers have flown more than 320 missions and 2,400 combat hours throughout Afghanistan, providing close-air support and precision engagement.
An Air Mobility Battlelab initiative could "energize" new possibilities for aeromedical evacuations in the future.
NATO could change its rotating command of southern Afghanistan and give the role to a single country, amid concern that the current system is boosting the Taliban insurgency, NATO's top US general said Thursday.
India successfully tested a nuclear-capable missile Wednesday that can hit targets deep inside China, joining the ranks of nations possessing intermediate-range missile capacity, the defence ministry said.
The Lebanese capital braced for more sectarian violence Friday after fierce gunbattles in Beirut left at least seven people dead and the opposition Hezbollah chief charged that a government crackdown on his group was tantamount to a "declaration of war".
Georgia's defense minister denied Thursday that the country planned to wage war against its breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The Global Security Challenge (GSC) and Secure Futures, a national security innovation firm, announced today their commitment to an initiative designed to help bring fresh thinking to the problem of protecting the general public from the threat of terrorism in crowded urban environments.
Coalition airpower integrated with coalition ground forces in Iraq and International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan during operations May 7, according to Combined Air and Space Operations Center officials here.
In the Army's recent fight to reduce the stigma of seeking and receiving treatment for combat stress, the latest weapon is telepsychiatry.
The US Coast Guard today accepted delivery of the first National Security Cutter, USCGC Bertholf (WMSL 750), a 418-foot vessel built by Northrop Grumman and equipped by Lockheed Martin with integrated communications, sensors and electronics systems.
The premier installations from each military service and the Defense Logistics Agency were recognized at a Pentagon award ceremony May 8.
The U.S. Navy is acquiring a third lot of Northrop Grumman Improved Capability (ICAP) III airborne electronic attack systems for its fleet of EA-6B Prowlers under a $101.9 million firm, fixed-price contract.
A source with inside knowledge of the issue sent me this today and I thought I'd share it with you:
Armor kits to deal with the EFP threat to MRAPs is already in production and some kits are in the shipment/installation pipeline to units in Iraq.
The problem with high tempo military operations is that those on the cutting edge will not turn in their current equipment for upgrade when the alternative is using armored Humvees while the existing MRAP vehicles are being upgraded.
Now, we're still working on finding out what this armor could be -- or do -- and how many are being shipped. But this is truly an important, and intriguing, development.
-- Christian
The F-117 Nighthawk -- the U.S. Air Force's greatly touted stealth attack aircraft -- is gone. At least, we think it's gone -- can one really be certain with a stealth airplane? The aircraft, which won combat honors during operations over Panama, Serbia, and Iraq, was officially retired in late April after a 27-year service life.
"It was a mistake to retire them," said Dr. Richard Hallion, former historian of the Air Force and special assistant to that service's secretary. Hallion explained to this writer that the large number of F-16 and F-15 fighter-type aircraft flown by the Air Force are not stealthy and the number of F-22 Raptors, which do have stealth characteristics, are too few in number to meet the U.S. need for low-observable strike aircraft.
Cited by the Air Force as the world's first operational aircraft designed to exploit low observable -- stealth -- technology, the F-117A entered service in 1982. Through 1990 Lockheed built 59 aircraft at a Burbank facility.
The F-117 first flew in combat during the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989 that led to the capture of dictator Manuel Noriega. F-117s were also flown in the air campaign over Serbia in 1999, and were among the first aircraft to strike targets in the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and in the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
One F-117 was shot down by Serbian anti-aircraft fire on 27 March 1999. Serbian forces launched Soviet-provided "Neva-M" missiles (NATO designation SA-3 Goa) to down the F-117A serial number 82-806. The pilot ejected after the aircraft was struck and was subsequently rescued by Allied forces.
According to then-NATO commander General Wesley Clark and other NATO officials, Serbian air defenses found that they could detect F-117s with their radars operating on unusually long wavelengths. This made the aircraft visible by radars for short times.
The wreckage of the F-117 was not immediately bombed due to possible media fallout from news footage showing civilians around the wreckage. The Serbs were believed to have invited Russian personnel to inspect the remains, inevitably compromising the U.S. stealth technology.
Some of the wreckage is reportedly on display at the Museum of Yugoslav Aviation close to Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport.
During the 1991 air campaign against Iraq, the F-117 was the only coalition aircraft to fly over Baghdad. (The Navy's ship-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles also "flew" over Saddam's capital city.)
F-117s flew combat missions only at night, hence their name Nighthawk.
The F-117 was born at the Lockheed "Skunk Works" in Burbank, California, the same design facility that produced the ultra-secret U-2 and SR-71 spyplanes. A production decision was made in 1978 and the first flight was made on 18 June 1981. The single-seat F-117's low-observable characteristics were derived from both its bat-like shape, with twin turbofan engines "buried" in the "boxy" fuselage. Capable of in-flight refueling, in 1992 F-117s flew non-stop from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, to Kuwait, a flight of approximately 18-1/2 hours -- a record for single-seat fighters that still stands.
Although designated as a "fighter," the F-117 had no air-to-air capabilities. It was an attack aircraft that could carry some 4,000 pounds of bombs or missiles in an internal weapons bay.
The first F-117s were retired in December 2006. The surviving aircraft will be stored in hangars at a secret location in Nevada. Their special storage is based on retaining the secrecy of their special features rather than any consideration of someday reactivating the planes.
Pakistan on Thursday successfully tested a ground-hugging cruise missile capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads, the military said.
Raytheon Company's Surface-Launched Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile successfully completed its first acquisition and tracking mission March 3, marking the first phase of system field testing at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
U.S. lawmakers have informed Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that they expect to pass the remaining $108 billion of the fiscal 2008 budget by their Memorial Day recess on May 24, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said at a Pentagon news conference today.
The Hon. Greg Combet MP, the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement, today announced that a review of Defence procurement and sustainment will be conducted by Mr David Mortimer AO.
In 10 years, Russia's national defense spending has risen by more than 965 percent as its military renews strategic air patrols, reasserts its interests throughout the former Soviet space, and actively pushes back against competing security interests from the U.S. and Europe.
Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, the 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern) commander, congratulated Airmen at Creech Air Force Base May 6 as the 432nd Wing marked its first year as the Air Force's only MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle wing.
Secretary of the Navy, Donald C. Winter announced on May 7 at a ceremony in Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y., the name of the newest Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer will be USS Michael Murphy.
Russia's Navy has denied Ukrainian claims that a missile belonging to the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the Crimea was washed up on the Ukrainian coast last week.
Last week Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, a subsidiary of Kongsberg Gruppen ASA, signed a framework agreement worth up to $100 million with Renault Trucks Defense of France for the delivery of PROTECTOR Remote Weapon Stations (RWS).
The Pentagon said Tuesday that any sizeable increase in much-needed US forces in Afghanistan will depend on deeper troop cuts in Iraq than currently planned.
The recent decision by ATA Airlines to file bankruptcy and cease operations -- including the charter service it provided to the U.S. military -- makes more apparent the wisdom of the U.S. Air Force decision to select the Northrop Grumman Corporation KC-45 as America's new tanker.
The U.S. Air Force found Northrop Grumman Corporation's bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers superior to Boeing's in four of the five most important selection criteria.
A significant milestone was reached more than two years ahead of schedule May 1 with the beginning of the 24th MQ-1 Predator combat air patrol in the war on terrorism.
I'd heard about this but it only recently popped up on the wires...
New Concerns After 2 Die in MRAP
The deaths of two U.S. Soldiers in western Baghdad last week have sparked concerns that Iraqi insurgents have developed a new weapon capable of striking what the U.S. military considers its most explosive-resistant vehicle.
The Soldiers were riding in a Mine Resistant Ambush Protective vehicle, known as an MRAP, when an explosion sent a blast of super-heated metal through the MRAP's armor and into the vehicle, killing them both.
Their deaths brought to eight the number of American troops killed while riding in an MRAP, which was developed and deployed to Iraq last year after years of acrimony over light armor on the Army's workhorse vehicle, the Humvee.
The military has praised the vehicles for saving hundreds of lives, saying they could withstand the IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, which have been the biggest killers of Americans in Iraq. The Pentagon has set aside $5.4 billion to acquire 4,000 MRAPs at more than $1 million each, making the MRAP the Defense Department's third largest acquisition program, behind missile defense and the Joint Strike Fighter.
But last Wednesday's attack has shown that the MRAPs are vulnerable to an especially potent form of IED known as an EFP, for explosively formed penetrator, which fires a superheated cone of metal through the vehicle's armor.
Military officials are still trying to determine whether last week's attack is a sign of "new vulnerabilities (in the vehicle) or new (weapons) capabilities" on the part of insurgents, said Navy Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
And I know one other weapon that will slice through an MRAP "like a hot knife through butter" according to a Navy EOD tech I rode with in a JERV in Iraq, but I won't say it here (anyone who knows MRAPs well enough will know what I'm talking about).
I guess it didn't take long for the IED arms race to catch up with the MRAP.
-- Christian
Sorry folks, been on vacation with my family for a few days, but back up now...
On Friday I attended a press conference at the Pentagon -- I called it an end zone dance -- where the Marine Corps talked about its successful deployment to Iraq with its first Osprey squadron.
They've already replaced the VMM-263 with another squadron and the press conference -- which surprisingly lasted about an hour -- was pretty standard stuff.
One thing that the Corps' chief of aviation Lt. Gen. George Trautman said was that the service "had an all-aspect, all-quadrant weapon system" on the Osprey "since the very beginning."
"The reason we don't have an all-aspect gun on this platform is because it's hard to do. Okay? So it's more than just weight with regard to the chin gun.
"I've got a lot of time flying Cobras, and the Cobra is the only helicopter in the Marine Corps that has a forward-firing gun. It is not an easy proposition, even in the Cobra.
Well, SOCOM said the same thing, and it looks like they're getting what they want. BAE Systems has developed an underbelly gun for the spec ops version of the Osprey. And though some claim the mechanism makes the V-22s cargo cabin tighter, Trautman had positive things to say about the design and its ability to track the entire circumference of flight.
"The system that we're looking at now, with the Special Operations Command, is an all-aspect weapon that would be mounted in the belly of the aircraft.
"I actually have a better degree of confidence about this than I've had about any other approach that we've taken. And if it comes out the way that we hope that it will come out -- and I actually have some degree of confidence that it will -- Special Operations Command will have this all-aspect weapon mounted, and they intend to deploy with it early in the fall.
And that brings up another interesting point...So is AFSoc going to deploy with the Osprey in the Fall of '08? There's some rumor that SOCOM wants to deploy with the bird early, so was Trautman showing SOCOM's hand?
We can rehash the whole argument over why the Corps left an all-aspect gun out of their current design, but in the end, it sure goes against the Marines' culture to leave one off. As VMM-263 CO Lt. Col. Paul Rock said:
"Well, I mean, never ask a Marine if you wouldn't want more guns on his airplane. I mean, you know, that's kind of, I mean, more guns is good."
-- Christian
Graduates completed the first orientation course for the Afghan National army air corps April 30 at the Kabul Air Corps Training Center here.
Fighter jets circled over Red Square on Monday as Russia prepared a huge patriotic display around this week's presidential inauguration, amid rising tension with pro-Western neighbour Georgia.
Following a series of successful reliability characterization tests, Lockheed Martin received U.S. Government approval to continue development and production of the Joint Air-To-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM).
The Defense Department is working to reduce stress on the force and improve quality of life for the troops, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told Soldiers at the Army Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss Friday.
A Russian delegation visited two U.S. Air Forces in Europe bases April 27 through May 1 to discuss theater security cooperation between the U.S. and Russian air forces.
The U.S. Air Force found Northrop Grumman Corporation's bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers superior to Boeing's in four of the five most important selection criteria.
A range of futuristic vehicles that could one day help UK forces to identify and avert threats on operations have been unveiled at an MOD event in London.
Thousands of trucks from Navistar Defense, LLC will support rebuilding and security efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq as the U.S. Army today awarded Navistar Defense a multi-year contract valued at nearly $1.3 billion.
Two Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors successfully sent classified sensor data to ground stations in the U.S. Air Force's Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2008 (JEFX 08) conducted April 15-25 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.
NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Monday the alliance supports the installation of an American radar base in the Czech Republic as well as a missile shield for its allies.
Adults and children alike were all smiles during a special delivery of school supplies at Eglal's ABC School April 27 here.
In the last few days armasuisse, the Procurement and Technology Competence Center of the DDPS, carried out acceptance tests with the first PC-21 aircraft for the Swiss Air Force at Pilatus Aircraft Ltd in Stans.
Collaboration between the F100 engine program office at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and test personnel at the Arnold Engineering Development Center here along with engine manufacturer Pratt and Whitney has led to reduced test costs for component improvement verification testing at AEDC facilities.
Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia shot down over its territory on Sunday two Georgian surveillance drones, an Abkhaz presidential envoy told RIA Novosti.
A 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) Soldier was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross during a ceremony here Wednesday for valorous actions during Operation Enduring Freedom.
An Air Force Reserve pilot deployed here broke his own world record for hours spent flying the F-16 Fighting Falcon when he surpassed the 6,000-hour milestone May 2.
China is building a major underground nuclear submarine base on the southern tip of Hainan Island, defence group Jane's said Friday.
Coalition airpower integrated with coalition ground forces in Iraq and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in the following operations May 3, according to Combined Air and Space Operations Center officials here.
In 1948, the fledgling Israeli armed forces defeated seven Arab armies to forge the Jewish state. Sixty years on, they have a large if unconfirmed nuclear arsenal but have yet to overcome the persistent threat from Arab irregulars.
The war of nerves between Georgia, Russia and the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia stepped up a notch Sunday, as Abkhaz officials claimed to have downed two unmanned Georgian spy planes.
The MV-22 Osprey has proven itself in Iraq, and Marine officials are applying the lessons learned in the first operational deployment of the tilt-rotor aircraft to current operations.
The U.S. Army has published three new handbooks to help soldiers prepare for the first 100 days of combat, officials said on a teleconference with online journalists and "bloggers" yesterday.
The Navy's newest nuclear-powered submarine, USS North Carolina (SSN 777), was brought to life May 3 during a commissioning ceremony held in its namesake state at the Port of Wilmington.
The first group of maintenance crews for the F-35 Lightning II have successfully completed classroom instruction and certification training in preparation for F-35 test-site stand up at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
With 19 years and more than 3,000 flying hours piloting the B-52 Stratofortress, Lt. Col. Tom Silvia is the right person to ensure the bomber' s simulator is realistic as overhauls are completed to bring it up to date.
Lockheed Martin today announced that IBM will join its industry team to develop and maintain the Next Generation Identification (NGI) system for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) -- the new multi-modal, state-of-the-art biometrics system to be used by state
Never mind the radiation: British contingency planners worried there would be a dramatic shortage of tea in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, recently declassified documents showed Monday.
The second hull-form of the Littoral Combat Ship class was launched a few days ago in the Austal Shipyard in Mobile, Alabama (Mobile is turning into quite the military manufacturing base when you think about these ships and these ships, existing shipbuilding capabilities and the new Air Force tanker).
Looking unlike anything that had graced the seven seas, at least with the US Navy, the three-hulled trimaran floated off its blocks in its drydock on 29 April. Further work and outfitting needs to be completed, but from the looks of it, its will be one wild looking ship as it bears down on a pirate dhow off the horn of Africa.
Why do we need these new littoral-capable ships? From the Program Executive Office for Ships:
In developing capability to overcome access denial threats from surface and subsurface threats in the littoral, the Navy sought improved mine warfare capability, an effective counter to small, fast, highly-armed boats, and a ship better suited against quiet diesel submarines. These capabilities highlighted the need for a high-speed, shallow-draft vessel with endurance. The littoral combat ships are designed to meet that need.
Any way you cut it, having this improved and increased capability in the littoral regions close to shore will expand the toolkit available to the Joint Force Commander regarding available military options. I'm looking forward to seeing this new ship at work.
If you remember from our stories a couple months ago on the MQ-8B Fire Scout helo-drone, the Navy was in the middle of deciding what ship the UAV would be flown on as the service waits for the LCS to come into service. Since development of the Fire Scout has outpaced the troubled LCS, it made sense to put the drone to use now.
MQ-8B manufacturer Northrop Grumman has announced that the Navy decided to fly the drone aboard an FFG-7 Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate and integrate it into the entire class while LCS progresses.
According to the current schedule, the Navy will conduct Technical Evaluation on the Fire Scout on FFG-7 in the fall 2008 and OpEval in the summer 2009. The Fire Scout will reach Initial Operating Capability soon after OpEval in 2009. The Navy will continue to support LCS Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) efforts in fiscal year 2011.
...a NorGrum release said...
Again, this marks a significant milestone for a program that was literally on life support a few years ago and proves that when you can get it right, things work out. We'll see how it works on the frigate, but clearly the move shows the Navy's got a lot of confidence in the platform.
Continues Northrop Grumman:
Fire Scout VTUAV restructuring is in the best interests of the Fleet and the U.S. Navy Fire Scout VTUAV program because it enables the Navy to continue supporting LCS integration and will provide a more mature system for LCS deployments.
Fire Scout is capable of landing on all aircapable ships, so integration efforts will focus on dynamic interface testing, supportability assessments and data management. The Navy and Northrop Grumman are working together to define and develop a roll-on/roll-off Fire Scout ship deployment package that will facilitate this effort.
Fire Scout is currently conducting envelope expansion, software validation, payload integration and data link testing at the Webster Field annex of Naval Station Patuxent River, Md.
-- Christian
We're running a story in our headlines at Military.com this morning on alleged security breaches with BAE Systems (a major subcontractor to Lockheed Martin...) on the JSF program.
I received a full rebuttal today from a contact over at BAE and I wanted to share it with you in full:
The DoD IG explicitly found no instances of unauthorized access to classified or export control information on the JSF program. We strongly disagree with the IG's suggestion that nonetheless,such information may have been compromised in some unidentified way by unauthorized access at BAE Systems. There is no basis whatsoever for that conclusion.
BAE Systems takes very seriously their obligation to protect classified and export controlled information and has a compliance program that reflects the highest of standards. BAE Systems has a long and proven track record of safeguarding sensitive information entrusted to it.
BAE Systems also strongly disagrees with the suggestion that we did not perform required audits and fully comply with our Special Security Agreement. That suggestion is simply false.
BAE Systems previously requested a meeting with the DoD IG to resolve what appears to us to be a misunderstanding of the underlying facts.
A major hat tip to DT friend Nick Schwellenbach over at the Project on Government Oversight for breaking this story into the open. Here's a link to the IG report.
-- Christian
Another promising weapon. Another worrying gaggle of mixed directions, uncertain focus and a lack of strategy.
That's the story of Prompt Global Strike, touted as the answer to one of the country's most vexing problems -- how to take out high-value targets far behind the lines and way beyond line of sight with accuracy and great speed. The Government Accountability Office looked at the Pentagon's stop-and-go efforts on this critical capability in a report released yesterday. The report was requested by three stalwart supporters of PGS, Reps. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) , chairwoman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, Terry Everett (R-Ala.), ranking member of the subcommittee, and Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), formerly a senior member of the subcommittee and now chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The GAO told them there is no official DoD definition of global strike. The different combatant commanders support different approaches. Global strike does not figure in "any existing or proposed joint doctrine publications." Regional commanders and service officials believe that the Strategic Command -- lead proponent for the capabality -- needs to work with them more "to mitigate any misconceptions commands may have about global strike, particularly in light of frequent staff turnover." Those who would use the capability "have not widely participated in joint exercises and other training, which can increase their understanding of global strike." Correcting these would help the Pentagon better plan and develop a system and how to use it, the report says.
Plus the Pentagon needs to conduct a comprehensive assessment of possible systems because it "has not yet begun to develop a prioritized investment strategy," so it doesn't know what choices to make. From past conversations with staff and with intelligence officials it's clear that one of the biggest hurdles for Prompt Global Strike isn't the weapon itself -- though that ain't simple -- it's having the intelligence and a way to link the intelligence with the weapon system. After all, this approach is meant to come up with something that can kill someone or take out a WMD facility pretty much anywhere in the world within half an hour. Perhaps DoD could use that definition and get started?
UPDATE: One congressional aide told me: "Global strike, particularly long-range conventional prompt global strike, hasnt come very far since its inception in the 2001 Nuclear Posture Review. One of the reasons is that the Administrations preferred approach - Conventional Trident Modification -- was a non-starter with a majority of congress. It took DoD a number of years before this fact set in. There now appears to be consensus in Congress for this type of capability; it will be up to the next administration to put forth a technically and operationally viable concept that is also politically acceptable."
-- Colin Clark
Air Education and Training Command officials suspended flights of T-38C Talon aircraft May 1 following a fatal crash at Sheppard AFB, Texas.
Here are a couple other things I picked up from the SASC Authorization markup.
So it looks like senators included the $102 million the Army wanted for another Land Warrior deployment.
This time it's for an entire brigade, rather than a single Stryker battalion. Lt. Col. Ken Sweat, who's been working on the Land Warrior system for longer than it was even called "Land Warrior," told me in Iraq last winter that if they got the money, the 5th Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division would get the next Land Warrior suite. This is huge news for a program literally on life support and a big win for LW backers who helped folks like me get over to Iraq to cover the system in combat.
Sweat told me 5/2 would be equipped with Land Warrior Next-Gen -- which will include a Blackberry-like soldier control unit instead of the ruggedized mouse device they have now. They'll also move the helmet electronics assembly off the helmet and place the unit on the soldier's chest, they'll shave weight by combining the navigation box and the computer and they'll ditch the GPS unit for Joes and use instead a radio location device so they can be tracked by unit leaders.
Of course, the money still has to make it through the House, then a joint committee markup, but it's a positive first step.
Also, the Senate put its foot down on the Stryker Mobile Gun System. You'll remember my story about the MGS from some interviews I did in Iraq. Now, I know there are some strong fans of the vehicle, but the Joes I talked to hated it.
The SASC lawmakers included language in their version of the bill to require "the Secretary of Defense to ensure that the Stryker Mobile Gun System (MGS) is subject to testing to confirm the effectiveness of actions taken to mitigate the deficiencies identified in Initial Operational Test and Evaluation and Live Fire Test and Evaluation..."
That's a blow to GDLS and the Army, who both think the MGS is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I'm agnostic on the whole thing and can only go with what the Joes told me. And it looks like the Senate is going to also.
-- Christian
The Senate's draft version of the 2009 defense authorization bill creates new steering boards to review requirements for major weapons systems, targeting one of the main causes of cost growth in weapons systems.
We're still trying to get some details on exactly what the Senate Armed Services Committee means by this, but it sounds as if Congress has finally - after years and years of grumbling from experts and from congressional staff about this - gotten the message that requirements really do matter a great deal and that the Joint Requirements Oversight Council and its attendant parts really don't work very well.
There are two big increases approved for weapons systems: $430 million in research and development and $35 million in advance procurement for the Joint Strike Fighter program to support the GE/Rolls Royce F136 engine program.; and $350 million for the Transformational Satellite Communications systems known as T-Sat.
Neither add is a shocker. After all, Congress told the Air Force in 1996 to create an alternative engine program for the JSF. Of course, DoD has tried to whack the funding for three years in a row, eager to move the money to other programs, and the Hill has not so gently reminded the military of the benefits of engine competitions.
We understand that, while the Senate authorizers approved this money, their colleagues who appropriate the funds have not yet looked at the T-Sat issue in detail, busy as they are with the looming supplemental spending bill.
The T-Sat increase isn't a great surprise since the key congressional staff dealing with space issues were extremely unhappy with the Air Force for cutting the size of the program's request last year and then virtually gutting the effort in this year's budget request - slicing $4 billion from it over the six years of the 2009 budget request. Those cuts came just when congressional watching this had decided the high-speed communications system was on the right track after years of pushing for more funding than its immature technologies could really sustain.
Lockheed Martin and Boeing are competing for the prime contract on this system.
Two snarky observations on the Senate markup. First, the Senate rarely moves first on a bill but the House Armed Services Committee won't get to its markup til next Wednesday. Second, we applaud the generous but futile effort of Sen. Claire McCaskill to open the Senate committee's work to public purview.
"It is my firm and simple belief that we make better laws when we do our work fully open and transparent to the public. The public deserves to know what our views and our actions are and to be able to freely scrutinize, support or oppose them," McCaskill said Tuesday.
When you talk to Senate aides they usually tell you that their bosses don't want to have to deal with a lot of lobbyists hassling them about details in the draft bill if it were open to the public. Of course, many of those lobbyists have already had their chop, since they get better access than most members of the public. (Sure, we're jealous ) The official reason offered by the committee is that closed session allows them to discuss classified issues at any time.
"It doesn't make sense to close the hearing when we are working on a section of the defense bill that doesn't contain any classified information," McCaskill said. "There's no reason why the committee can't just close the parts of the meetings that do contain sensitive information and open the rest."
More on the Senate markup as we get details from staff through the week.
-- Colin Clark
NATO warned Russia Wednesday to stop undermining Georgia's territorial integrity, after Moscow announced it would send more peacekeepers to two rebel Georgian regions.
The Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS) program, with significant support from Northrop Grumman Corporation, achieved a significant milestone in late March 2008, operating for the first time from one of the U.S. Navy's newest transformational platforms, the Ohio-class cruise missile submarine USS Michigan (SSGN 727).
Engineers at Arnold Engineering Development Center began testing a Pratt & Whitney F100 engine April 29 in the J-1 simulated altitude jet engine test cell using a blend of alternative synthetic fuel.
Lockheed Martin announced today that it has achieved a major integrated test milestone on the first Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) geosynchronous orbit (GEO-1) spacecraft that enables the start of environmental testing in preparation for launch in late 2009.
A new Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bomber officially entered service with Russia' Air Force during a ceremony at an aircraft manufacturing plant in Kazan on the Volga, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Tuesday.
The US Army has approved the final design of Increments 1 and 2 of the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program, authorizing General Dynamics C4 Systems and partner Lockheed Martin to prepare for field testing in October 2008.
Raytheon Company has successfully completed the mission system design readiness review for the Zumwalt-class destroyer program.
CIA chief Michael Hayden charged Wednesday that China was beefing up its military with "remarkable speed and scope," calling the buildup "troubling."
Finnish politicians want tighter supervision of what kind of acquisitions the national defence forces make and how they are scheduled.
Lockheed Martin yesterday delivered the 100th C-130J Super Hercules to the U.S. Government. The C-130J was delivered to Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., where it is assigned to the 41st Airlift Squadron, the Blackcats, which is currently engaged in Southwest Asia on their first combat deployment.
The Guardian has reported that cluster bombs are to remain a part of the armoury available to the British Forces.
BAE Systems will lead a team of scientists that will develop miniature robots to improve military situational awareness. The company signed a $38 million agreement with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to lead an alliance of researchers and scientists from the Army, academia and industry.
Northrop Grumman Corporation has been selected by the U.S. Army Communication-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command to produce the new multi-function radar for the Extended Range/Multi-Purpose Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Radar program.
Air Force Reserve Command's 927th Air Refueling Wing transferred to MacDill AFB April 27, forming a classic associate unit partnership with Air Mobility Command's 6th Air Mobility Wing.
The United States Air Force had considered a plan to drop nuclear bombs on China during a confrontation over Taiwan in 1958 but it was overruled, declassified documents showed Wednesday.
This week's Airman's Roll Call focuses on how the Air Force purchases new weapon systems.
I'm just fascinated by this stuff According to a report today, DARPA plans to flight test two hypersonic demonstrator vehicles beginning in 2009.
There's been a lot of talk about hypersonics and what the flight regime can and can't do for civilian and military applications. And finally there's going to be some proof in the putting. It'll be interesting to see the dynamic effects of such speeds and whether the science is there to build hypersonic planes and missiles.
From Flight Daily News:
Details have emerged of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) plans to test fly its two expendable dart-shaped Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV)-2 demonstrators.
To be launched by Orbital Sciences Minotaur solid-fuel rockets from Vandenberg Air Force Base, HTV-2a will fly in May 2009 and HTV-2b will follow in the October of that year.
While the two flights have separate trajectories they will both impact near the Kwajalein Atoll test site in the Pacific Ocean. HTV-1 was a ground test demonstrator.
The first flight will demonstrate performance characteristics, and the second cross-range manoeuvring as well as thermal protection system performance.
The two HTVs will use inertial navigational measurement units and global positioning system (GPS) for guidance, while testing satellite communications and GPS reception through the plasma that will surround the vehicles during their flight.
"The HTV-2 will have a plasma probe onboard [to examine the hot gases] and we are expecting it to have good lift-over-drag performance," said DARPA's tactical technology office deputy director Steve Walker, speaking at the 15th AIAA International space planes, hypersonic systems and technologies conference in Dayton, Ohio on 28 April.
The article also mentions another flight demonstrator that will demonstrate some radical flight characteristics:
The next flight demonstrator after HTV-2 will be Blackswift. Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne were working on a waverider type vehicle called the HTV-3 but there are no plans to build this and the concept has been designated HTV-3X.
Blackswift is a reusable hypersonic demonstrator and the prime contractor for its construction and flight test is yet to be selected.
Should be an exciting year for exotic flight regimes.
(Gouge: NC)
-- Christian
Most of the Pentagon's weapon systems cost much more than they should, are built much more slowly than they could be and the entire system needs fundamental reform.
Those were the conclusions of most lawmakers and one senior defense acquisition expert at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington earlier this week.
Perhaps most damning, senior staff member Michael Sullivan from the Government Accountability Office told lawmakers that the system had not really been any better or worse when he started investigating defense procurement in 1986, though he conceded there were some recent small signs of improvement.
The hearing's poster child for botched Pentagon buying was a $13.2 billion Marine Corps program called the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. The program for the updated AAV started in 1996 when the Marines issued a contract to General Dynamics. Initially, the program won plaudits for its innovative management and it passed through the program definition and risk reduction phase in mid-2001. Then things began to fall apart. The Marines issued a contract for the next phase of the program which was supposed to cost $712 million but quickly rose by the end of 2006 to an estimated $1.2 billion.
The modernized amtrac, according to a report prepared for the Oversight Committee's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), weighed too much to carry combat-ready Marines and still go as fast as it should. It operated only four-and-half hours before requiring major maintenance instead of the planned 47 hours. It was so loud that Marines could not speak to each other and had to wear ear plugs.
Originally, the Pentagon planned to buy 1,025 Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles for $8.4 billion. Now the military plans to buy 593 for $13.2 billion. Costs per vehicle, according to the committee's report, have increased 168 percent and production has slipped eight years.
But the Marines' EFV was certainly not alone in being a botched acquisition, Sullivan told the committee. His testimony noted that not one of the 72 weapons programs his office reviewed used "the best practices standards for mature technologies, stable design and mature production processes " He told the committee that "acquisition problems will likely persist until DoD provides a better foundation for buying the right things, the right way." Right now, the military promises it can do too much, and underestimates how much weapons will cost.
The stakes are enormous. The Defense Department plans to spend $900 billion over the next five years on developing and buying weapons. Current programs are usually 21 months late in getting initial capabilities to the soldiers, Marines and airmen who need them. That is five months later than an analysis done in 2000 indicated, according to Sullivan's prepared testimony. Almost 45 percent of the Pentagon's major acquisition programs are paying more than 25 percent more per system than originally planned, compared to 37 percent of programs in 2000.
The biggest problems Sullivan found in his examination of defense spending were: requirements that grew and grew and grew; turnover of program managers that raised issues of "continuity and accountability;" too much responsibility in the hands of companies for work that used to be done by government officials; and difficulty overseeing the increasingly complex job of software development.
The two Pentagon officials at the hearing conceded there was room for improvement but insisted the system is not broken and is actually beginning to improve.
James Finley, deputy undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and technology, said that when he underwent Senate confirmation many people believed the process was broken. After his first 90 days in office he concluded they were wrong. "We needed to add discipline to the process and ensure that the basic blocking and tackling in executing the acquisition process was done correctly," he testified.
Senior Pentagon leaders developed a three-year plan and is 26 months into implementing that plan. It includes greater focus on the beginning of a program to make sure prototypes are used to get a better handle on performance, cost, how to build the system and how long it will take to build, Finley said. The Pentagon has cut the paperwork for reviews by half and has standardized red, yellow and green indicators for cost, schedule and performance. There is greater focus on program stability - keeping funding steady and limiting turnover of key personnel -- and the Pentagon created earned value management system "trip wires" to help identify problems on a monthly basis, Finley said.
-- Colin Clark
In a sharp break for a military with long experience wielding the battle-tested AK-47, the Afghan national army is set to replace its entire inventory of Kalashnikov rifles with the American-made M-16.
By the end of the year, the U.S. military plans to ship about 55,000 used Marine Corps M-16A2 rifles to Afghanistan with the intent of outfitting every soldier in the Afghan army with one by the late spring of 2009. So far about 6,000 M16s, including Canadian C-7 variants, have been fielded to Afghan units and about 6,000 M-4 carbines have been in the hands of Afghan commandos since May 2007.
Officials in charge of the $44 million modernization effort recognize the difficultly in transitioning a largely illiterate force from a weapon designed for the third world to one that requires intensive maintenance and marksmanship. But the new, more accurate weapons are already proving their worth on the battlefield.
"When the commandos go into a fight against an enemy that's armed with AKs, it's not a fair fight. And even fire against 'spray and slay,' it's not a fair fight at all," said Army Lt. Col. Mike McMahon, who heads up the modernization program for the Afghan army.
"The competence you get [from the M-16] and the confidence is just incredible."
The effort to abandon decades of experience with the venerable Kalashnikov is in part an attempt by Kabul to make a symbolic break from its insurgent past, where genocidal battles with AK-47-toting Soviets and Taliban religious zealots weigh heavily on the memory of Afghanistan's post-September 11 government, McMahon said.
Similar efforts are in the works to supply the new Iraqi army with M-16s as well.
But the enhanced performance and increased assurance gained by wielding the M-16 and its variants come at a cost. Early efforts to train the Afghan army on the M-16 have been mixed, with some soldiers sticking to their trigger-happy ways -- firing triple the amount of ammunition that a typical U.S. trainee would -- and others using diesel fuel to lube the finely-tuned carbine as if it were an AK.
"The Afghans called this the 'Black Kalashnikov' -- it was nothing different than just a plastic weapon," McMahon explained. "They figured out very quickly -- after they went through zeroing -- that it was way different than the Kalashnikov, and you didn't fire all your rounds at the same time."
The M-16s do take some getting used to, McMahon said, and some long-standing habits have to be broken. For one, Afghan troops can't just pick up any M-16 and fire it with any hope of hitting what they're aiming at. Each soldier has his individual weapon zeroed to his particular shooting style and is accountable for that weapon's whereabouts.
And no more ripping off a 30-round magazine shooting from the hip, McMahon said. The M-16 is designed to be fired from the shoulder, so forget the "spray and slay" shooting style.
Initial training on the M-16 with the 205th Afghan Army Corps in January was mixed, mainly because there were too few instructors with deep enough range and marksmanship know-how to get the students up to speed. So a new program has been launched along the lines of the M-16 training regimen in Iraq to hire six teams of 12 civilian contract instructors who will teach Afghan non-commissioned officers how to use the new rifle.
In a classic "train the trainer" model, those NCOs will then be in charge of teaching Afghan grunts on the M-16, giving small unit leaders the added benefit of perfecting both their rifle and management skills.
"We see a huge secondary benefit in terms of development of the NCO corps by doing this; in teaching them how to train, how to run ranges and how to teach" other soldiers, McMahon said. "Also this gives them a system that will have a devastating impact on the enemy in terms of almost revolutionizing the army."
-- Christian
The Air Force received the last in a series of GPS IIR(M) satellites from Lockheed Martin during an recent fly-out ceremony at the Lockheed Martin facility in Valley Forge, Penn.
May 2 marks 20 years since the last B-1B Lancer was delivered to the Air Force, and today commanders consider it one of the most valuable aircraft in Iraq.
Rockwell Collins has completed delivery of the first 505 Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) for the Tank Urban Survivability Kit (TUSK) program.
Today, Sweden’s offer was submitted regarding Norway’s tender for new fighter aircraft. If they choose Gripen, Saab promises extensive industrial cooperation with a number of Norwegian companies.
The U.S. Air Force found Northrop Grumman Corporation's bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers superior to Boeing's in four of the five most important selection criteria.
The New Zealand Defence Force signed a contract with Sinclair Knight Mertz Pty Ltd (SKM) at Defence House in Wellington today as part of the KiwImage project.
Austal has successfully launched its landmark 127-metre Littoral Combat Ship ‘Independence’ (LCS 2) in what proved a momentous occasion for the company as it celebrates its 20th year.
A great analysis on the tanker deal from my old friend Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute who's name is "Mud" to pro-Boeing lawmakers...
If you want to understand how former allies end up going to war -- or former lovers end up getting divorced -- take a look at how Boeing and the Air Force are treating each other in their angry confrontation over the award of a next-generation tanker program to Northrop Grumman. Boeing expected to win the contract, and now finds itself facing the prospect of losing a 50-year aerial refueling franchise (and $100 billion in sales) while its main rival in the commercial airliner business sets up shop on Boeing's home turf. Boeing is convinced it should have won, and is spending millions of dollars on lawyers and advertising to press its case in a formal complaint to the Government Accountability Office.
Air Force leaders, on the other hand, believe that Boeing is willfully mis-stating the facts in a bid to obscure the inferior performance of the plane it proposed. A marathon session of Air Force acquisition experts two weeks ago concluded that none of the 200 issues raised by Boeing in its complaint to GAO was likely to be upheld, and that whatever minor problems the accountability office might uncover would be far from sufficient to overturn a competitive outcome the service says was not close. Beyond the merits of Boeing's case, Air Force officials are insulted by the tone of the company's public statements, which have used phrases such as "deeply flawed" and "severely prejudiced" to describe the tanker selection process.
The deterioration of Boeing's relationship with its biggest government customer hit a new low last week, when Air Force insiders began hinting darkly that the company had encouraged Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill to question the ethics of the service's chief of staff in a letter concerning an unrelated contracting matter. The notion that Boeing would do such a thing seems exceedingly unlikely, since the chief was widely believed to favor Boeing's tanker bid and the company's relationship with McCaskill is lukewarm at best (even though its defense unit is headquartered in her state). But the tone of Boeing's tanker campaign has led at least some service officials to believe the worst about the company, a feeling that is spreading far beyond tankers. For instance, the service has probably delayed announcing award of the GPS III satellite contract in part because it fears another Boeing protest.
What's fascinating about this confrontation is that the two parties embrace completely contradictory views of reality, and yet the partisans on each side are absolutely convinced that their version of the facts is the only true account. If there's anyone inside Boeing who thinks the tanker competition was rigorous and transparent, I can't find them. And if there's anyone inside the Air Force that thinks Boeing's protest has any merit, they're hiding from me. The stark difference in how the combatants see the same events seems more like a case study in Balkan politics than the button-down world of defense acquisition.
A sage observer of human nature commented in the Wall Street Journal some years ago that the great achievement of American capitalism was to channel impulses that led to rape and pillage during earlier civilizations into constructive forces for economic progress. That's an important insight, but sometimes in the rough and tumble of competition we see hints of how recently mankind emerged from the jungle. When rival cultures begin hating each other, their behavior can easily spill beyond the bounds of rationality. So Boeing and the Air Force need to catch their breath, tone down their rhetoric, and realize that they both still need each other to succeed.
And Reuters reports the same day Boeing exec agrees to shave down the "sharp elbows."
-- Christian
Two highly significant contracts that were awarded by the Department of Defense last week will have great impact on the rapidly increasing role of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the U.S. armed forces. The first, on 21 April, was for phase one of the Vulture program intended to provide an unmanned aircraft with an endurance of five years. The second contract, announced a day later, was to acquire the RQ-4N variant of the Global Hawk for the Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program.
The Vulture program -- under the aegis of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) -- envisions a vehicle carrying a 1,000-pound payload drawing five kilowatts of power that is able to remain aloft for an uninterrupted period of at least five years while remaining in the required mission airspace 99 percent of the time.
The Vulture phase one contracts were awarded to Aurora Flight Sciences, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin. According to DARPA, the Vulture program will focus on developing innovative technologies and approaches for in-flight energy collection (e.g., from solar panels) or refueling in flight and ultra-reliable systems or systems that could be repaired in flight. Other technologies that will be developed include multi-junction photovoltaic cells, high specific energy fuel cells, extremely efficient propulsion systems, advanced structural designs.
In the second phase of Vulture the contractors will refine demonstrator designs, continue technology development, and conduct an uninterrupted three-month flight of a sub-scale demonstrator. Phase three will consist of a continuous 12-month flight of a full-scale demonstrator.
In some respects the Vulture will be a corollary to the Helios UAV program. That vehicle was a long, thin, flying wing intended to fly higher than any unmanned aircraft ever. It passed an altitude of 76,000 feet on its first solar-powered test flight on 14 July 2001. Operating from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, no problems were encountered during the 10-hour, 17-minute flight. A flight the following 13 August took the UAV to 96,863 feet.
The Helios crashed two years later. A 247-foot-long flying wing that measured only eight feet front to back, Helios was a $15 million aircraft controlled from the ground by pilots using desktop computers. Its 14 propellers were driven by small electric motors powered by solar cells built into the wing. Helios was built by a partnership of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and AeroVironment Inc. of Monrovia, California.
While the Venture's primary goal will be endurance rather than altitude, it will also be a high-flyer, able to provide unprecedented surveillance and other functions over a designated area.
In a less prosaic UAV effort, a year after proposals were received, the Navy has selected Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk for the BAMS program. The $1.16 billion cost-plus-award-fee contract will develop the RQ-4N variant for persistent maritime Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) data collection and dissemination.
The Global Hawk is the largest operational UAV ever produced, having a 116-ffot wingspan, a length of 44 feet, and weighing almost 26,000 pounds with a 2,000-pound internal payload. The UAV first flew in February 1998 and soon entered U.S. Air Force service. It continues in production.
In U.S. Navy service the RQ-4N variant will compliment the new P-8A Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMMA), which is planned to replace the long-serving Lockheed P-3 Orion. The BAMS/RQ-4N platform may be particularly useful in some of the electronic intelligence missions flown by the EP-3E aircraft as well as various one-of-a-kind Orion environmental and oceanographic research missions.
And, looking to the long term, the BAMS/RQ-4N, with its current endurance of almost 24 hours and large payload, may eventually perform other missions in direct support of the fleet, such as Airborne Early Warning (AEW).
These two UAV efforts -- the long-term Vulture and the near-term BAMS -- are further indications of the increasing significance of unmanned vehicles to U.S. military operations.
The U.S. Army plans to build and launch into orbit a constellation of satellites for the first time in roughly 50 years. And it plans to build the cluster of eight miniature communications satellites within as little as nine months, defense officials told Military.com.
The roughly $5 million effort is part of the Army's commitment to what is known as Operationally Responsive Space. The joint program, based at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., was created in May 2007 after years of vigorous prodding by Congress to get the U.S. military to change how it conceives of, builds and flies satellites.
For the Army, this is "a pathfinder project to fulfill an urgent need for beyond line of sight communications capability," said James Lee, chief of strategy and policy for Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Ala.
Lee's office set up a task force in March to decide how the Army should tackle the deployment of space assets. And the money for the service's satellite effort is coming from Army coffers, Lee added.
The requirement for the bantam-weight sats -- which measure about 30 inches square and weigh around five pounds -- was generated by a combatant commander whom Lee declined to identify. But you can get some idea who it is by the mission he described for the so-called "cubesats."
The satellites should provide communications for Army units below the brigade level operating in parts of the world where the military has no current secure satellite communications, such as Africa, Lee explained.
The only services available in those regions come from commercial vendors, he said, and they're often not American-owned.
In addition to providing needed communications links, the effort would also help build the Army's overall space capabilities, Lee said.
"We feel it's important to have experience at an engineering level to build space capabilities, even if it's a simple as a cubesat," he said. Army engineers will work alongside designers from a Huntsville-based company called MilTec, which will build the first six satellites. Space and Missile Defense Command will build the last two.
"We believe we have the expertise but many of our scientists don't have hands-on experience," Lee said.
All eight satellites will be launched together, either on a Minotaur or Falcon rocket. Minotaur, a four-stage solid fuel rocket that uses decommissioned Minuteman missile rocket motors, is built by Orbital Sciences Corp. The Falcon 1 is built by PayPal millionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX Company.
The Minotaur has flown seven times and the Falcon has launched twice but has not successfully lofted a payload into orbit.
The satellites will fly either in a swarm or will be flown in a loose formation. And Lee said the Army wants members of its space cadre to do the flying.
A senior Defense Department official who tracks space programs was supportive of the Army's plans, calling the move "great news." And in a sign of just how much the Air Force has dominated space systems and operations, the official noted that, "a little competition never hurt anyone."
And Lee was careful to avoid offense: "We don't really want to replace the Navy or the Air Force." But with today's strategic realities, and the limited resources currently available in orbit, the Army wants to make sure it plays its part.
-- Colin Clark
Last week while working on cyber attacks against media web sites I discovered some information I thought you might benefit from reading.
One of the more significant concerns with cyber warfare is a targeted attack against the news media. There are two different strategies that play here. The first possibility is a disruptive strategy -- where the cyber attack disables the media from reporting on activities and disrupting their ability to inform the public about events that are or have just taken place. The second strategy addresses the use of the media as a source of misinformation. Misinformation and disinformation campaigns are easily mounted and you can even find this tactic addressed in the well known work "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. We have assessed the implication of both of these scenarios using the Scenario Based Intelligence Analysis Tool created by Spy-Ops. The result of that analysis is below.
Scenario 1 - Media Disruption
An attack against the entire media sector in an attempt to disrupt its ability to communicate with and inform the public is rated a 2.3 on our risk scale.
MEASUREMENT SCORE
Cost = 4.3
Complexity = 4.7
Difficulty = 4.4
Discovery Probability = 3.8
Success Probability = 2.0
Impact = 4.7
Current Defense = 2.5
___________________________________________
Overall Risk = 2.3
Scenario 2 - Dis or mis Information
An attack against a primary new source with the intent to inject mis-information for public dissemination is rated a 4.1 on our risk scale.
MEASUREMENT SCORE
Cost = 1.3
Complexity = 1.6
Difficulty = 2.2
Discovery Probability = 2.0
Success Probability = 4.0
Impact = 4.7
Current Defense = 2.5
___________________________________________
Overall Risk = 4.1
In support of the higher risk and increased likelihood of success in this type of attack is the following account of events that took place on June 17, 2007. The viewers of a Czech television channel watching a Web cam program monitoring weather in various Czech mountain resorts saw a nuclear explosion taking place in the Krkonose or Giant Mountains in the northern Czech Republic. CNN Europe reported that members of a Czech art group were responsible and got in trouble for hacking a television broadcast and inserting the phony video of the nuclear explosion.
One can only imagine the psychological impact on the viewers that witnessed this prank. The TV channel CT2 said that they received frantic phone calls from viewers who thought a nuclear war had started. By the way, just recently the artists were acquitted of the charges stemming from the fake nuclear blast on TV.
Watch the Video of the News/Weather Cast.
In a conversation I had with a security consultant he told me: "Sure it could happen in the U.S. today. The media industry has not made the necessary security improvements since the Captain Midnight incident in the late 80s."
As if on cue, my boy Chavez comes through again!
From today's Pravda:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez harshly criticized the US administration again after the unauthorized passing of the USS George Washington along the coast of the Latin American country. Chavez promised to bury the USA in the 21st century.
When Americans appear near our shores with their navy, the George Washington aircraft carrier, one should not forget that it happens at the time when we together with Brazil are creating the Defense Council of South America, Chavez said in a speech that was broadcast by all TV and radio channels of Venezuela.
In this century we will bury the old empire of the USA and will live with the American nation like with a brotherly nation, because over 40 million of its citizens live below the poverty line, the Venezuelan leader said.
I'm beginning to get a kick out of that guy...
(Gouge: NC)
-- Christian
Overall defense spending has skyrocketed in recent years, both in dollar terms and relative to the size of the economy.
After 7 months in Iraq, Darrell Anderson, 22, decided that he wasnt to risk going back to Iraq to kill or be killed. He fled to Canada, a deserter. While there, though, he felt he wasnt doing enough to expose and stop the war and returned to U.S. and, possibly, a long prison sentence. Perhaps to undermine the legal case of other deserters in Canada, the U.S. military imprisoned Anderson only a few days, releasing him with a less than honorable discharge. Given Andersons heroic determination to organize and help GI and other war resisters, the U.S. military may come to believe theyve made a mistake. Anderson describes the escalation of violence against unarmed civilians: In April, they told us, In a crowded area, if one person shoots at you, kill everybody. Read More
Military.com has an interesting story about a "bum bot" that rolls around an Atlanta neighborhood:
Cars passing O'Terrill's pub screech to a halt at the sight of a 300-pound, waist-high robot marked "SECURITY" rolling through downtown long after dark.
The regulars hardly glance outside. They've seen bar owner Rufus Terrill's invention on patrol before - its bright red lights and even brighter spot light blazing, infrared video camera filming and water cannon at the ready in the spinning turret on top.
"You're trespassing. That's private property," Terrill scolds an older man through the robot's loudspeaker. The man is sitting at the edge of the driveway to a child care center down the street. "Go on."
The man's hands go up and he shuffles into the shadows. Almost immediately, a group of men behind him scatters too.
The Bum Bot's reputation, it seems, has preceded it.
The electronic vigilante - on the beat since September - has enraged neighborhood activists, who have threatened protests. Street people say it's intimidating. And homeless advocates question the intentions of its inventor, who uses the Bum Bot as a marketing tool and a political prop.
Read the rest of the article here.
-- Ward
Sri Lanka carried out retaliatory air strikes against Tamil rebels Thursday, a day after intense artillery battles left hundreds killed or wounded, according to officials on both sides.
The Boeing Company today delivered a detailed, 7,000-page proposal offering its advanced F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to the Indian Air Force as part of India's Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition.
NATO HQ hosted a visit of the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mr. Nouri Al-Maliki. He was accompanied by a high-level team of government members...
The Signal Corps of the United Arab Emirates and Thales have signed a major contract for the development and supply of ZAGIL, a theatre wide deployable Tactical Internet system.
Patria has delivered the first NH90 transport helicopter to the Finnish Defence Forces a week ahead of the schedule agreed last December.
Japan warned Friday that US allegations that North Korea helped Syria develop a secret nuclear reactor, if proven, would be a blow to a stalled deal on ending the communist state's nuclear drive.
When Air Force battle requirements call for Airmen to observe, report and engage a target from close proximity, without being seen, they call for their sharpshooters.
Canadian and American officials today renewed the defence transportation treaty on Integrated Lines of Communications (ILOC).
Raytheon Company has received a $79 million Foreign Military Sales award from the U.S. Army to provide Taiwan with Patriot Configuration-3 radar upgrade kits and related engineering and technical services.
NASA officials brought the Super Guppy -- a uniquely-designed aircraft used to transport cargo, including parts of the space shuttle program -- to Tinker AFB in mid-April so that maintainers here could inspect the aircraft and perform some repairs.
A new group of Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers have started specialized training on counter improvised explosive device (C-IED) operations at Camp Zafar, home of the 207th ANA Corps.
The Department of Defense's (DOD) intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities-such as satellites and unmanned aircraft systems-are crucial to military operations, and demand for ISR capabilities has increased.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Australia of Modular Artillery Charge Systems and XM982 Block Ia-1 Excalibur Projectiles as well as associated equipment and services.
In a huge win, the U.S. Navy has selected Northrop Grumman as its contractor for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS) program.
BAE Systems has shown, for the first time, how multiple unmanned air and land vehicles can work under the command of a number of battlefield commanders to deliver vital reconnaissance and surveillance information to front-line troops.
The European Parliament gave its backing to Galileo's deployment phase which paves the way for the European satellite radio navigation system to be operational by 2013.
Alliant Techsystems has received a nine million dollar contract from the U.S. Air Force to develop a Hard Target Void Sensing Fuze (HTVSF) under the Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration (JCTD) program.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Canada of CH-47D CHINOOK Helicopters as well as associated equipment and services.
Software used for years by hackers and criminals have now become mainstream and, as we have mentioned before, hacking and cyber crime have been professionalized. As such, tool kits that enable these activities have been packaged for sale and wide dispersion across the Internet. These cyber attack tool kits make it possible to automate hacking, espionage, fraud, and much more. These top hacking tools are now being sold for prices ranging from less than $100 and up to $50,000.
And you wont believe this: The most advanced packages come with customer service/support. In at least one case the package includes 12 months of technical support and updates to ensure the kits stay up to date on the latest web vulnerabilities.
Arguably the most advanced hacker tool kit is MPack. According to Intelomics, MPack is a PHP-based malware kit with high quality key-logging capabilities that sells for between $500 to $1,000 USD and the first version was released in December of 2006. It is believed to have been produced by RBN, a multi-faceted cybercrime organization and appears to come with support and monthly updates.
RBN and their support units provide scripts and executables to make MPack undetectable by antivirus software. Every time MPack is generated it looks different to the anti-virus engines and it often goes undetected. The modularization of delivery platform and malicious instructions is a growing design in cyber weapons. MPack is very popular and powerful. In June 2007, it was used by a single person to attack and compromise over 10,000 websites in a single assault.
FACT: In 2007 a new piece of malware was identified every 45 seconds.
These tools have become common place and are quite affordable. Paul Henry, VP at Secure Computing, estimates there are currently about 68,000 cyber attack tools available for download and the number is growing fast. In some cases these tool kits are sold under the heading of "Penetration Testing Products," a legitimate and useful product.
However, the automation that enables multi-site scanning and intrusion would have very little applicability in the real security testing world. Experts have estimated that the underground market for cyber attack tools is in the hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide.
Note: MPack should not be confused with mpack, which is a harmless command-line utility.
Common Cyber Weapons and Attack Tools:
MPack SQLNinja
Shark 2 WFuzz
Nuclear ProxyStrike
WebAttacker Wireshark
IcePack httpRecon
John the Ripper Exploit-Me
USB thief Burp
Kismet Metasploit
Cyber Attack Tool Web Sites
http://www.ethicalhacker.net
http://www.metasploit.com
http://www.hackerscatalog.com/Products/Deal_Steals/index.html
Think we're going to hear a speech about this from our boy in Venezuela? Can you smell the sulfer here?
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced today the re-establishment of the U.S. Fourth Fleet and assigned Rear Adm. Joseph D. Kernan, currently serving as commander, Naval Special Warfare Command, as its new commander. Fourth Fleet will be responsible for U.S. Navy ships, aircraft and submarines operating in the Caribbean, and Central and South America.
U.S. Fourth Fleet will be dual-hatted with the existing commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (NAVSO), currently located in Mayport, Fla. U.S. Fourth Fleet has been re-established to address the increased role of maritime forces in the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of operations, and to demonstrate U.S. commitment to regional partners.
"Re-establishing the Fourth Fleet recognizes the immense importance of maritime security in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere, and signals our support and interest in the civil and military maritime services in Central and South America," said Roughead. "Our maritime strategy raises the importance of working with international partners as the basis for global maritime security. This change increases our emphasis in the region on employing naval forces to build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests. "
Effective July 1, the command will have operational responsibility for U.S. Navy assets assigned from east and west coast fleets to operate in the SOUTHCOM area. As a result, U.S. Fourth Fleet will not involve an increase in forces assigned in Mayport, Fla. These assets will conduct varying missions including a range of contingency operations, counter narcoterrorism, and theater security cooperation (TSC) activities. TSC includes military-to-military interaction and bilateral training opportunities as well as humanitarian assistance and in-country partnerships.
U.S. Fourth Fleet will retain responsibility as NAVSO, the Navy component command for SOUTHCOM. Its mission is to direct U.S. naval forces operating in the Caribbean, and Central and South American regions and interact with partner nation navies to shape the maritime environment.
Kernan will be the first Navy SEAL to serve as a numbered fleet commander.
And it's being honchoed by a SEAL?! Look out Citgo, we're coming to get you...
-- Christian
