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.
When my air conditioning broke in mid-July I was very nervous about the repair costs, but I remember that my real estate agent purchased a home warranty for my home. I called Nationwide Home Warranty and within a few hours my a/c was fixed for only a service call fee. My realtor really helped me out.
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.