Wednesday, June 20, 2018
F-35 mistake jets to be built till 2023...early buyers are guaranteeing expensive upgrades to achieve basic combat capability...
via Defense Aerospace.
Three-quarters of all the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters delivered to foreign customers until 2023 are obsolete and will require major retrofits before they can deliver their promised performance.If the above isn't bad enough then put down your beverage. I'm trying to save you a monitor...
An analysis of F-35 contracts awarded to date shows that fully 343 – or 74% -- of the 460 export F-35s that Lockheed is to deliver until end 2024 will be in the current, obsolete Low-Rate Initial Production configuration.
These 343 aircraft are limited both in terms of operational capabilities and of the weapons they can use. They are, and will remain, obsolete because their software is incomplete and because their sensors – designed over 20 years ago – have been overtaken by several generations electronics progress.
Lockheed and the F-35 Joint Program Office have quietly decided that all of the planned sensor and avionics upgrades needed to bring the F-35 to full capability will be deferred until 2023, when the first Full-Rate Production (FRP) aircraft (Lot 15) will begin to roll off the production lines.
All this, however, is a best-case scenario, and assumes that the F-35 will pass its Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (IOT&E). Due to be completed in 2019 or 2020, IOT&E will allow the Pentagon to take the (Milestone C) decision to launch Full-Rate Production (FRP).
If it doesn’t – and the GAO reported on June 5 that “As of January 2018, the F-35 program had 966 open deficiencies, of which 111 category 1 (critical)” – then all bets are off, and the program will have to undergo a major restructuring.
These new sensors are crucial for the F-35 to achieve the capabilities it was designed to deliver, but which are still not available today, after 17 years of development. Lockheed says, for example, that the new DAS will have five times the reliability and twice the performance of the current system, despite being 45% cheaper to buy and 50% cheaper to operate.
However, Lot 15 deliveries will only begin in early 2023 and, meanwhile, deliveries will continue with the current electronics and sensors.
The implications are clear.
It's obvious that the avionics package that delivers the "sparkling" sensor fusion that is NOW the lynchpin of the F-35's combat performance is obsolete across the board.
What wasn't said is that even with the upgrades after 2023 the F-35 is playing a dangerous game of catchup. Everytime they gain capabilities that put them on par with what's in pods under the wings of jets flying today they're still behind because upgrades to those systems will not wait for the F-35.
It still gets worse though.
Ever wonder why Singapore is waiting? The USN? There are sound economic reasons for it.
The upgrades will be costly.
Who's gonna take big hits? Check out the chart below....
Australia is gonna get gut punched. Denmark slammed. Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, S. Korea (in a big way) and the UK are all taking donkey punches to the nutts!
I wonder about Japan, and Israel because they do so much work on their own and will be using their own "gear" to a large extent in the airplane.
Especially on the part of the Israeli Air Force we could actually be seeing a kind of hybrid airplane that has the form of the F-35 but is internally very different.
But what about the USMC?
I fear for the Corps. We're trying to get beyond the trainwreck but this will ensure continuing funding problems with the F-35 gobbling up the budget for at least another generation.
They got the plane across the finish line but at what price to Marine Aviation?
The funny thing is that they're gonna bring balance by destroying what they sought to make supreme. By their incompetence we're headed back to a balanced air ground combat task force because of necessity, not planning.
Space Porn. Another day at the office.
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"Space was our office yesterday. #EVA51," said International Space Station astronaut Ricky Arnold on Friday, the day after his latest spacewalk during which he upgraded cameras on the orbital platform.
Arnold and Station Commander Drew Feustel completed the sixth spacewalk at the station this year, which lasted lasting 6 hours, 49 minutes. The two astronauts installed new high-definition cameras that will provide enhanced views during the final phase of approach and docking of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner commercial crew spacecraft that will soon begin launching from American soil.
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The idea of a space force might be a bit too soon but to think that we've kept pace is foolish.
When was the last time that the US sent a man into space from our own soil? When was the last time that an American astronaut went into space atop a US and NOT a Russian rocket?
We're behind and all the cool pics from NASA can't change that fact.
Let's not even try and guess what the Russians or Chinese are doing in secret...the X-37 might be cool but we aren't the only ones I'll guarantee you that!
CMI Defense in pole position to win US Army Stryker Lethality Upgrade?
Thanks to Jonathan for the link!
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| The most stunning part of this pic? Medium caliber weapons are back! Do you see those two vehicles near the center sporting 90mm cannons? That might be the sweet spot for future warfare....the Israelis tried the 60mm Hypervelocity gun and dumped it. 57mm from the Russians or the 40mm from the French/Brits probably won't deliver when you have 90mm of pain waiting in the wings to be applied to these rigs! |
via Defense News.
The U.S. Army’s test-firing of a 30mm gun turret from CMI Defence is seen by the Belgian firm as putting it in a privileged position for an upcoming tender for greater firepower for the Stryker combat vehicle, a company spokesman said.That is a crazy variety of vehicle sporting everything from 30mm on up. The future peer vs peer battlefield will be kinetic as fuck!
“We’re in pole position, “ Xavier Rigo, communications manager of CMI Defence, told Defense News on June 18. “That does not mean we will win the race, but it puts us in a very good position. We are very proud to have been selected for tests, a real recognition for our team and our equipment.”
That test-firing stems from a cooperative research and development agreement CMI signed in 2015 with the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, which is seeking a lethality upgrade for the Stryker.
CMI adapted the turret to fit the U.S. requirement for linkless ammunition, he said. ATK supplies the 30mm gun, which CMI fitted to its turret.
The Belgian company also supplies a 105mm gun turret for a bid led by SAIC in the U.S. tender for the Mobile Protected Firepower program. CMI has fielded its Cockerill 3105 turret, which uses its turret and 105mm cannon, with the latter built in a factory in northern France.
A Cockerill 3105 turret was among the products on display at the CMI stand at the Eurosatory trade show, which ran June 11-15. The stand at the show two years ago used the Cockerill brand name.
BAE Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems and SAIC are the competitors in that Stryker lethality upgrade competition, Rigo said. The next step is a down-select to two bidders, which will be asked to build and supply 12 prototype vehicles for tests.
In Europe, CMI is ”in discussion with the Belgian government“ in its search for a role in Belgium’s planned €1 billion (U.S. $1.2 billion) acquisition of the Griffon and Jaguar armored vehicles from the French Army Scorpion program.
Those talks are exploring the possibility for CMI to participate in local production and maintenance of the Scorpion vehicles, he said. The Belgian project, dubbed Capacité Mobilisé, or CAMO, sparked debate, as the planned acquisition boosted French contractors Arquus, Nexter and Thales, but left CMI turrets by the wayside.
CMI has delivered 130 gun turrets and is building some 20 turrets per month to supply GDLS, which has a contract with a Middle Eastern country, he said, declining to identify the client nation.
Those turrets are based on four modules, armed with 30mm, 90 mm, 105 mm, and both 105mm and 30mm guns. There are both manned and unmanned versions of the turret.
Canadian broadcaster CBC reported March 19 that GLDS Canada has sold to Saudi Arabia combat vehicles armed with 105mm and 30mm guns for ”heavy assault,” anti-tank and direct-fire support.
CMI conducted a firing demonstration of its six Cockerill gun turrets June 15 at the French Army Suippes firing range, eastern France. Some 60 representatives of foreign army delegations attended, the company said in a statement.
The Belgian company had been one of the bidders for Arquus, the then-Governmental Sales unit of Volvo Group, until the Swedish truck maker canceled the sale. Nexter had been the other bidder.
Big caliber rounds will be flying.
Anything short of cities and infantry might not be able to survive. Open deserts and plains will be killing fields.
Cyber won't be the key. ISR will. See first hit first? Maybe but I think the better meme might be --- see first, decide to run or fight first might be more appropriate!
The Marine Corps' announcement of the ACV winner was strange...
Maybe the ground side does things differently.
Maybe the USMC is gun shy after all the flash and sizzle that occurred with the announcements of the CH-53K and the F-35B...perhaps they decided that it was beyond time to tone things down.
But something is a bit off with this announcement.
First it was like this news was percolating since last Friday. No details but the "hold close" was broken like crazy. No details were given but whispers were out there...whispers that turned out to be true.
Then the actual announcement itself.
To a pet news organization?
That's un-Marine Corps like....or should be.
This is the biggest thing to hit the groundside in quite awhile. The buy of the HK M16 variant? Sole source buy that they did on a whim. The announcement of the change to the Marine Rifle Squad? Timid as fuck. With the caveat that they could return to the status quo if this thing goes tits up (as I expect it will on first contact with the enemy).
But the main thing is that this wasn't a formal announcement. Just a late afternoon press release to a favored news organization and then this morning a bullshit as image release with accompanying TINY blurb.
They kept the testing of the vehicles in house. No one was on site to the testing in Mississippi to see how they performed in marsh/swamp type terrain. No one on site to see how these vehicles performed in the desert. No one to see how they performed in urban environments.
In essence do we have confidence that they picked the right rig?
Can we have confidence that they're really a step ahead of an upgraded AAV?
Oh and let's talk about the STK contender. Do you think that's a bad vehicle? You're full of shit if you do! Then simply picked the wrong partner. SAIC has been performing badly and has failed to execute. They have a niche and trying to expand beyond it it has proven difficult. Beyond difficult because SAIC has a jacked up management style on the vehicle production side of the house (I fully expect the AAV upgrade they won to be mangled before its all said and done).
Note to the Marine Corps.
Next time do this shit right. The secret squirrel shit ain't doing you favors. To STK, next time team up with a partner that can deliver. If you had gone with General Dynamics after the downselect you would have had a better chance at success.
To BAE/Iveco? You guys know how to do this. Ms. Mitchell needs to crawl from under the rock and start shouting about how this vehicle will carry the day and is the next gen rockstar for carrying Marine Forces from ship to shore...for all our allies, not just the US Marines.
This thing is done. They selected the vehicle.
Winning the future and getting them into service has just begun.
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
From Army Ranger to 2nd LT and onto a "revolutionary in uniform"...The US Army sure knows how to pick it's cadets!
Story here.
I can't even put the dreadful details on this blog. I can't believe it but this actual has me pissed beyond belief.
This guy actually got commissioned, actually made it thru West Point...basically took the seat of a person that actually wanted to be in the US Army for what are the right reasons...and they don't detect that this fucker was subversive till he shows up at his first duty assignment? Correction. They don't detect it till images show up on the net with him flashing Communist propaganda while in uniform?
I'm dazed and confused by this.
How many other traitors are in uniform?
How many other junior officers are actually cheering for the enemy? How many senior officers?
We deserve better but this new military force won't deliver.
We will get fucked up in the next peer vs peer war. We're just too far off the mark to be able to adjust in time to prevent catastrophe.
We fight on land, air, sea and space?
Trump confuses the hell outta me. Did he come up with this shit? Is Kelly whispering in one ear and Mattis in the other and he's acting as a stalking horse for the DoD?
Will the Navy, Air Force and Army stand by while another force (as if SOCOM isn't a big enough money pit) is built to drain from a budget that is huge but obviously limited?
We will need a space force one day.
Today is not that day.
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