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| A U.S. Marine Corps AAV-P7/A1 Amphibious Assault Vehicle aboard U.S. Army logistics support vessel USAV CW3 Harold C. Clinger (LSV-2) waits to be transferred to the USS New Orleans (LPD-18) as part of an Army to Navy, ship-to-ship transfer of Marine Corps assets at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Oct. 24, 2019. The evolution further developed the services’ joint operational capabilities, interoperability and flexibility in the Indo-Pacific region. |
Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace AS (KONGSBERG) today signed a contract with the Norwegian Defense Materials Service worth SEK 583 million for the delivery of a mobile ground-based anti-aircraft system to the Norwegian army.Story here.
According to the company in a press release, the Army Mobile Ground Based Air Defense System was first introduced by the Minister of Defense in February 2017 as part of a direct procurement process from KONGSBERG.
This system is an ultra-mobility short-range anti-aircraft defense system that will reuse ready-made basic capabilities from the NASAMS system including a command and control system and unique network-centric solutions.
In addition to data from NASAMS, the system completes the IRIS-T missile from Diehl Defense GmbH as well as a radar from Weibel Scientific A / S.
US Pandur AGMS around Syrian city of Qamishli. pic.twitter.com/t01ArISUib— Aldin 🇧🇦 (@aldin_ww) November 2, 2019
The most commonly mentioned figure is for the F-35A, the Air Force’s conventional takeoff variant and the least expensive model. The current estimate for the lot of aircraft currently in production is $89.2 million apiece. This figure is the unit recurring flyaway cost—the price tag for just the aircraft and engine, which by themselves do not make a fully functioning weapon system. That $89.2 million does not include procurement funds spent on initial spare parts, flight training simulators, the expensive – and poorly performing – ALIS support system, and more, all unique to the F-35. You need all of it, not just an air frame and engine – literally not including the cost of fuel to fly it. When we also consider the future modifications necessary to correct both the known and potential design flaws and the aircraft’s $44,000 per-flight-hour cost, it is easy to see why the F-35 program is the most expensive in history.Story here.
A handy tool for anyone interested in knowing more about actual costs of military programs and weapons is readily available online. The Pentagon posts budget materials for each fiscal year on the comptroller’s webpage. Included are budget estimates and the justification documents containing more charts and figures than any reasonable person would care to view.
The Air Force’s fiscal year 2020 budget pays for the 48 F-35As in Lot 11. The current $89.2 million dollar price the Pentagon uses is calculated by separating out just the costs for the airframe and the engine from the larger total procurement cost that includes ALIS, simulators, initial spare parts, and more to get to the artificially low $89.2 million. That is far from the whole story.
The Pentagon’s own budget documents list the FY 2020 procurement cost for those 48 aircraft as more than $101 million, nearly $12 million more than the figure rolled out for press reports. Using the Navy’s charts and the same math shows that the real costs for each F-35C is more than $123 million, while each F-35B costs in excess of $166 million. But even that figure doesn’t tell the whole story.
.@USArmy troops in 4-118th Infantry Regiment, @30thabct, @NCNationalGuard attached to the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, @SCNationalGuard, load M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to support the @CJTFOIR mission in Deir ez Zor, Syria. #DefeatDaesh pic.twitter.com/ZbFsvIemRW— OIR Spokesman Col. Myles B. Caggins III (@OIRSpox) October 31, 2019
Heavy fighting between Syrian army troops and Turkish forces erupted near Ras al-Ain as Turkish-backed forces seized villages surrounding the border town.Story here.
Turkish-backed rebels said there were intermittent clashes between the two militaries in recent days south of the town, which Turkey seized from Syrian Kurdish-led forces earlier this month.
Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from the border town of Sanliurfa, said thousands of people were fleeing the fighting near Ras al-Ain and Tal Tamr towns.
Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters - known as the Syrian National Army (SNA) - launched an offensive and took over areas previously under control of Kurdish fighters south of Ras al-Ain, he said.
As fighting intensified, Syrian troops deployed reinforcements from Derbasiyah to Tal Tamr.
"The SNA took over western parts of the town. People have had enough each time someone controls the area and ends up being worse than the previous armed group," one Tal Tamr resident told Al Jazeera.
"I am concerned for my children, this is why I am leaving. The Syrian army is on the frontline to stop the rebels' offensive, but you never know."
Don’t usually do heart felt clips but this got me 💪🏼❤️pic.twitter.com/1mxOApxZQ0— Ffs OMG Vids 📽🔞 (@Ffs_OMG) November 1, 2019
