The authoritative military journal, Janes, reports that Lockheed's overdue, overpriced and under-performing F-35 Wunderjet is already encountering problems with obsolescence.Interesting.
The United States has embarked on a technology refresh development track for the electronic warfare (EW) module of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter to overcome obsolescence issues before the system has even made it into service.This has seen the US Naval Air Systems Command place a USD149 million contract to Lockheed Martin, as a modification to a previous advanced acquisition deal and covers the "redesign and qualification of replacement F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter Electronic Warfare system components due to current diminishing manufacturing sources".
This is consistent with the criticism recently leveled by Aviation Week's Bill Sweetman that the endless delays in getting the F-35 deployed have played into its main adversaries' hands, allowing them to develop technologies to counter the airplane long before it even enters service.
 |
| Marines inspect a ZU-23 23mm automatic anti-aircraft gun on the Iranian Sassan oil platform. |
Action continued to escalate. The Joshan, an Iranian Combattante II Kaman-class fast attack craft, challenged USS Wainwright (CG-28) and Surface Action Group Charlie. The commanding officer of USS Wainwright directed a final warning (of a series of warnings) stating that the Joshan was to "stop your engines, abandon ship, I intend to sink you". Joshanresponded by firing a Harpoon missile at them.[5] The USS Simpson (FFG-56) responded to the challenge by firing two Standard missiles, while Wainwright followed with one Standard missile.[5] The attacks destroyed the Iranian ship's superstructure but did not immediately sink it, so USS Bagley (FF-1069) fired a Harpoon of its own; the missile did not find the target. SAG Charlie closed on the Joshan, with Simpson, then Bagley and Wainwright firing guns to sink the crippled Iranian ship.[5]You can read more here. A few of the systems involved but definitely not all follows...
Two Iranian F-4 Phantom fighters then approached the Wainwright. One fighter left the area soon after the cruiser placed its 55B Fire Control Radar in search mode. The second fighter made a low-altitude approach towards the warship, which responded by firing two SM-2 missiles at the fighter. One hit the Iranian aircraft, blowing off part of its wing and peppering the fuselage with shrapnel. The Iranian pilot managed to land his damaged airplane at Bandar Abbas.[5]
 |
| Standard missiles |
 |
| Iranian Combattante II Kaman-class fast attack |
 |
| Boghammar speedboats |
 |
| USS Merrill DD-976 |
The Pentagon is sending $50 million cargo planes straight from the assembly line to mothballs because it has no use for them, yet it still hasn’t stopped ordering the aircraft, according to a report.Wow.
A dozen nearly new Italian-built C-27J Spartans have been shipped to an Air Force facility in Arizona dubbed “the boneyard,” and five more currently under construction are likely headed for the same fate, according to an investigation by the Dayton Daily News. The Air Force has spent $567 million on 21 of the planes since 2007, according to purchasing officials at Dayton’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Of those, 16 have been delivered – with almost all sent directly to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, where some 4,400 aircraft and 13 aerospace vehicles, with a total value of more than $35 billion, sit unused.
The C-27J has the unique capability of taking off and landing on crude runways, Ethan Rosenkranz, national security analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, told the newspaper. But with sequestration dictating Pentagon cuts, the planes were deemed a luxury it couldn't afford.
“When they start discarding these programs, it's wasteful,” he said.
The planes are built by Rome-based Alenia Aermacchi, under what was initially a $2 billion contract, though that was scaled back.
The SEALs opted to withdraw.No racial or ethnic biased is intended in the title. I simply state the obvious in terms of military power.
U.S. military sources said they did so in stages, making their way down the beach, asking and waiting for further orders. The team, sources said, was still considering the option of returning to fight some more.
As air support was called in, the SEALs headed back to the beach and to their boat. A command decision had been made that the prize was not worth the risk of casualties to civilians and SEALs.
The SEALs escaped from Barawe without any deaths or injuries, according to sources and officials. And the target they sought to capture is still at large.
The SEALs were members of the same unit that raided Osama bin Laden’s compound in 2011, killing the al Qaeda leader.
“After the past few years and the bin Laden raid, everyone thinks these operations are easy – they’re not,” said a senior military official familiar with the operation. “The area doesn’t have the same support network for us as Afghanistan and Iraq.”
The Navy of Brazil participates, Sunday, Operation conducted by the Security Bureau of the Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro (RJ-SESEG) in Complex Lins in order to contribute to the continuity of the program implementation of the Police Units Pacification (UPP).Brazil's Fleet Marine Forces helping out their para-military police groups when they operate in the ghettos is nothing new. It appears (and I'm not entirely sure) that they're sending a more substantial bit of armor this go around.
Through the Fleet Marine Force, Brazil's Navy will provide logistic support to transport Special Operations Battalions (BOPE) and Shock (BPChq) of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro (PMERJ), and the Coordination of Resources Special (CORE), the Civil Police of the state of Rio de Janeiro (PCERJ).
A Grouping Operating Marines, with 180 effective military will act in Operation. These military will operate 14 armored vehicles to ensure the mobility of the Police Forces in the following communities Complex Lins: Possum, Hill of Love, Cachoeirinha Waterfall Grande, Morro da Cotia, Black Clay, Red Clay and Hill Meeting.
Will be used six armored tracked vehicles M-113 four Caterpillar Amphibian Cars (CLAnf) and four cars Mowag Piranha personnel carriers.
The Commander GptOpFuzNav-VIII is Captain Rio-de-Fragata (Marines) JOSEPH WILLIAMVIEGAS .
The 11th RC Mec, keeping his troops constantly adestrada held, on 02 October, a navigation instruction with armored EE 11 - urutu. The activity was held at Lake Hydroelectric Plant St. John II, here in Ponta Pora / MS.A couple of reasons why this caught my attention. First, the Brazilian Army is serious about water ops. Its something that the US Army will probably get more into once the turn to the Pacific fully takes hold. The second thing is that the EE11's although not a modern design seem serviceable. Additionally its curious that they sought out the assistance of Iveco instead of doing an in house improvement. Don't get me wrong. They have a winner in production now, but Brazil was once on the leading edge of domestic armored vehicle production.
A armored personnel carrier urutu, domestic manufacturing, is an amphibious vehicle, ie it is able to navigate. The instruction to all drivers of the 11th armored RC Mec, aimed to remind the preparation procedures of car navigation as well as maintaining the training of the troops.
Four more women took on the Marine Corps Infantry Officer Course on Thursday and washed out, the latest chapter in the service’s ongoing research into which roles women should be able to fill in combat.Everyone wants to say that people are being sexist because they don't believe women belong in the infantry.
The women failed the school’s introductory Combat Endurance Test, a grueling exam designed to assess physical strength, stamina and the ability to make decisions while exhausted. They were recruited on a voluntary basis to attempt IOC at Quantico, Va.
All told, 81 male and female Marines began the initial endurance test yesterday at Quantico. Sixty-five men passed; 12 male Marines and four female Marines did not, said Capt. Maureen Krebs, a Marine spokeswoman at the Pentagon.
American commandos carried out raids on Saturday in two far-flung African countries in a powerful flex of military muscle aimed at capturing fugitive terrorist suspects. American troops assisted by F.B.I. and C.I.A. agents seized a suspected leader of Al Qaeda on the streets of Tripoli, Libya, while Navy SEALs raided the seaside villa of a militant leader in a predawn firefight on the coast ofSomalia.This whole thing seems orchestrated. McRaven letting news of his response to a child being released to the public...and now news of the raid in Somalia.
“Now I’m going to tell you, one of these days, if you keep publishing how you do this, the other guy’s going to be there ready for you, and you’re going to fly in and he’s going to shoot down every damn helicopter and kill every one of your SEALs. Now, watch it happen. Mark my words. Get the hell out of the media,”The SEALs had to call in air support for this mission.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Lockheed Martin’s F-35A Joint Strike Fighter and the Eurofighter Typhoon are back in play for South Korea’s F-X III fighter requirement after that country made a sudden decision to reject the last remaining contender, Boeing’s F-15SE Silent Eagle, and restart the procurement process.Why even have a contest?
An executive committee of South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), chaired by Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, met on September 24 and determined that the F-15SE “is not suitable as it lacks stealth features,” according to Yonhap News Agency. The defense ministry opposed the procurement agency’s selection process because it prioritized cost over combat capability, the news service said. A majority of the committee’s members “agreed that the South Korean Air Force needs fifth-generation combat jets to keep pace with the latest trends and to deter provocations by North Korea,” defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told Yonhap.
