Pax Americana, Technological Readiness and broken weapons systems

[AdamG]

Or "How we self-sabotage our starting positions for the next conflict, through unacceptable QC and wasteful Defense Spending"


A $2.7 billion attack submarine, the USS Minnesota, has been out of commission for more than a year because of a defective pipe joint near the ship’s nuclear-powered engine.

The defective part, which is worth about $10,000, was installed near the ship’s nuclear power plant. Engineers discovered the poorly welded steam pipe in early 2015, and ongoing repairs have led to the ship being stuck in overhaul ever since, according to Navy Times.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/how-a-dollar27-billion-submarine-was-crippled-by-defective-parts/ar-BBr5oNm?li=BBnbfcL

[AdamG]

See also
On Service and the F-35
by William Herbert
http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/on-service-and-the-f-35

[davidbfpo]

AdamG,

The UK has a history of defence projects having issues, both historically and today. Plus a number of reports which have recommended "solutions".

Not to overlook the decisions made by politicians to end, even embark on major projects. The Nimrod maritime aircraft upgrade and the two new aircraft carriers (which will currently have no aircraft).

[Granite_State]

AdamG,

The UK has a history of defence projects having issues, both historically and today. Plus a number of reports which have recommended "solutions".

Not to overlook the decisions made by politicians to end, even embark on major projects. The Nimrod maritime aircraft upgrade and the two new aircraft carriers (which will currently have no aircraft).

CIMSEC did a podcast series on the Falklands War recently, the one with "Sharky" Ward has a good bit near the end with him savaging the UK's new carrier/F-35B foolishness.

[AdamG]

CIMSEC did a podcast series on the Falklands War recently, the one with "Sharky" Ward has a good bit near the end with him savaging the UK's new carrier/F-35B foolishness.

Link?

[Granite_State]

http://cimsec.org/sea-control-97-falklands-w-sharkey-ward/19236

Their whole series on the Falklands is great, worth getting on iTunes.

[AdamG]

Good comparison-and-contrast on what sort of value we're getting for our defense dollar.



America's new Zumwalt-class DDG-1000 destroyer is a marvel of engineering.

Sixty percent bigger than the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers it was designed to replace, but just as fast as a DDG-51 and featuring a stealthier design, Zumwalt touts two 155-millimeter guns, can carry a combination of 80 Tomahawk, Sea Sparrow, and ASROC missiles, and is one of the few warships in the U.S. fleet capable of producing enough power to operate the new railgun and laser cannon weaponry just starting to come on line.

But Zumwalt is not cheap.

Although it was initially designed in 1998 with the intention of producing 32 warships for a total cost of $36.9 billion (including R&D costs), a combination of cost overruns and procurement cuts have sent per-ship costs skyrocketing. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, each of the Zumwalt-class ships now under construction, expected to cost $1.2 billion to build, will instead cost $7.5 billion.

That's more than half the cost of a Ford-class aircraft carrier, and a big price to swallow and get only a destroyer in return. So it's little wonder that, with costs spiraling out of control, the Pentagon pulled the plug on the Zumwalt program in 2009, ordering a halt to production after just three ships.

But now there's a new threat on the horizon that could convince the Navy it can't afford not to build more Zumwalts.



http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/02/chinas-new-battle-cruiser-can-shoot-down-satellite.aspx

[Compost]

The term lightweight is a catalyst for all manner of projects intended to benefit military operations, for example the Combat Lightweight Automatic Weapon System (CLAWS) and the Lightweight Dismounted Automatic Machine Gun (LDAM).

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/04/27/us-army-create-lightweight-50-caliber-machine-gun/
recently highlighted a project – not apparently CLAWS but possibly LDAM - to develop a replacement .50cal MG for the classic .50cal M2 HB and as improved with QCB. Just possibly that project might be intended to also replace the derivative M3 with its higher maximum ROF.

The item’s reporter was unimpressed for several reasons not explained with all details on weights, although he did quote it is hoped to “save 16-pounds off of a 26-pound barrel”. As a summary of some of his concerns, the M2 which covers only part of the overall requirement for support MGs is bulky and with heavyweight tripod weights 128 lb, reducing to 106 lb with lightweight tripod. Keeping the M2 supplied with ammunition is burdensome – at about 28 lb for a 100-round belt without packaging - so it is often employed as a vehicle weapon. And when offloaded or back-packed by infantry it routinely needs logistic support from vehicles.

With the M2 in service as a reliable, well regarded and widely employed MG there is little point in spending development dollars on a new .50cal medium ROF MG or even just a lightweight barrel. A heavier barrel with less need for changing out on vehicles could be better value.

In somewhat the same vein the US Army has an Extended Range Cannon Artillery project to replace 39 calibre barrels by 52 calibre barrels in all its 155mm howitzers.
http://defense-update.com/20160329_m777er.html

That is intended to increase their maximum reach of about 30,000 yd to about 50,000 yd. And it includes a 52 calibre barrel that will increase the 9,300 lb weight of the towed M777 howitzer by some 1,000 lb. The M777 was quite recently developed with a part titanium carriage to obtain lightweight heli-portable support fire. The concepts for deep battle may in addition to rocket and missile artillery and attack helicopters demand long range barrels on self-propelled howitzers. However, heavying up any of the M777s for intermittent and punishing high pressure use seems illogical.

The US Army must already have procedures to ensure redundant and nugatory projects are shut out or down at an early gate. But the gate guardians could be trapped in a procedural bog or have in some other way gone missing. If either of those circumstances apply it could be appropriate to start and promptly implement a higher level weight reduction project.

[AdamG]

"I Wore a $400,000 F-35 Helmet and It Blew My Mind"
http://gizmodo.com/i-wore-a-400-000-f-35-helmet-and-it-blew-my-mind-1779125567

[AdamG]

Damage done by laser weapons is a function of power and time. The longer a laser can stay on a target, like a drone or an incoming missile, the more damage it can do. The more powerful that laser is, the less time it needs to spend burning its target. The U.S. Navy already has a 30-kilowatt laser mounted on a ship. Yesterday, at a summit on directed energy weapons in Washington, D.C., the Navy announced it plans to go bigger: 150 kilowatts.

National Defense Magazine writes:
The Office of Naval Research “will perform a shipboard test of a 150-killowatt laser weapon system in the near future,” said [vice chief of naval operations] Adm. Bill Moran during a speech at Booz Allen Hamilton’s Directed Energy Summit, which was held in Washington, D.C.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/other/the-navy-is-going-to-test-a-big-laser-soon/ar-AAhAvmZ

[AdamG]

Reading music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAMrFJB1o08

Were it not for efforts by the U.S. military to develop a lightweight, unarmored, all-terrain vehicle for the battlefield there might not be a market for SUVs today. It all began 75 years ago last December when the United States military adopted the 'jeep', and while the iconic military vehicle was phased out and replaced by the Humvee – the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) in the early 1980s – the Army could go full circle and bring back the jeep.

Last year the Army began gearing up its Ground Mobility Vehicle Program for fiscal 2017. It was part of the Army's Combat Vehicle Modernization Strategy that sought to procure lightweight combat vehicles for infantry brigade combat teams. The vehicles considered sound very much like what first entered service back in 1940.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/07/22/75-years-after-it-was-first-deployed-will-us-army-bring-back-jeep.html

Related trends - http://www.carolinacountry.com/index.php/carolina-stories/stories/agility-stability-stamina

[Maeda Toshiie]

AdamG,

The UK has a history of defence projects having issues, both historically and today. Plus a number of reports which have recommended "solutions".

Not to overlook the decisions made by politicians to end, even embark on major projects. The Nimrod maritime aircraft upgrade and the two new aircraft carriers (which will currently have no aircraft).

The back and forth decision over catapults on the Queenie class was hilarious, if it wasn't so sad.

[AdamG]

The U.S. Air Force asked industry on Friday for proposals to replace the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile and the nuclear cruise missile as the military moves ahead with a costly modernization of its aging atomic weapons systems.

The Air Force said in a statement it expected to award up to two contracts for a new ICBM weapons system, or ground-based strategic deterrent, sometime next summer or fall. It also expected to award up to two contracts in the same time frame for a new nuclear cruise missile, or long-range standoff weapon.


http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-defense-missiles-idUSKCN1092MS

[AdamG]

Wasn't this in "Hammer's Slammers"?
http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/01/us-army-develop-155mm-shells-that-will.html?m=1

[Azor]

Wasn't this in "Hammer's Slammers"?
http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/01/us-army-develop-155mm-shells-that-will.html?m=1

These are intended to be cheaper than CHAAMP and more mindful of damaging civilian infrastructure.

[AmericanPride]

This is probably one of the underlying math problems that threatens U.S. military superiority. The rate of increase in cost (resulting in a reduction in the number of available physical assets) exceeds the rate of increase in capabilities. Therefore, even as the U.S. spends more money, it receives a declining amount of combat power per dollar. Related to this problem, the long development & implementation timelines for new generations of aircraft, submarines, etc exceeds the analytical capability to assess their utility by the time they enter service. The average in fighter aircraft development time was about one year in 1945 to over 20 years today. What is the security environment going to be like in 2037? Nobody knows. Ask an analyst in 1913 what the world would be like in 1933. We don't have the institutional flexibility to respond to paradigm shifts in security.

[AmericanPride]

Not specifically military focused, but related nonetheless:


Yet despite the remarkable success of the U.S. innovation economy, many players in both government and industry have been pulling back from the types of bold long-term investments in fundamental science that could seed the great companies of the future. The entire innovation ecosystem is becoming more shortsighted and cautious. And by failing to invest sufficiently in basic research today, Washington risks creating an innovation deficit that may hobble the U.S. economy for decades to come. This concern has become acute since the White House released its budget blueprint, which proposes crippling cuts to science funding.

How to Maintain America's Edge (https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2017-03-23/how-maintain-america-s-edge)

[AdamG]

Top generals have been insisting for years that if North Korea launched a missile at the United States, the U.S military would be able to shoot it down.
But that is a highly questionable assertion, according to independent scientists and government investigators.
In making it, the generals fail to acknowledge huge questions about the effectiveness of the $40 billion missile defense system they rely on to stop a potential nuclear-armed ballistic missile fired by North Korean or Iran, according to a series of outside reviews.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-missile-defense-system-may-not-work-say-experts/ar-BBA21rd?li=AA4ZnC&ocid=spartandhp

[AdamG]

Fighter jets with laser weapons set to take to the skies in 2021 as Lockheed Martin wins $26 million 'Lance' high-energy laser contract


'LANCE' contract will build on technology from the Athena and Aladin lasers $26.3m contract aims to design, develop, and produce system for fighter jets. An airborne platform is smaller, presenting more of a challenge, experts say

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5055865/Lockheed-Martin-developing-high-energy-laser-jets.html

http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/f1/f19cda1fbbf7b65182fb4761e2eb845fd9dbf59d4dfc7466a1 48ba6d1aa164ab.jpg

Anyone remember the last time the USAF traded up for shiny new weapons systems?


“There was this strange idea in the Department of Defense that the gun was passé,” says military aviation historian Richard P. Hallion. “And the gun has never been passé.” Compared to the missiles of today, he says, the air-to-air missiles arming F-4s and F-8s during Vietnam were primitive and unreliable. (http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/11_on2015-f8-crusader-at-60-180956611/#4WrhPXsd0RMMI7l2.99)

[Compost]

There is potentially yet another problem with the F-35A CTOL variant of the JSF. For Air-Air Refuelling the F-35A has on its fuselage spine a standard US Air Force-style AAR receptacle designed to interface with the heavy flying boom of an aerial tanker. By contrast the maritime F-35B STOVL and F-35C CATOBAR variants for the US Marine Corps and US Navy are equipped with a retractable AAR elbow-probe designed to interface with a less heavy long hose-drogue towed by a tanker, or by a buddy fighter temporarily configured as an expedient tanker.

The refuelling boom carried by specialised tankers is subject to damage and malfunction due to slapping and ramming, and it can also damage the AAR receptacle on a receiving aircraft. However those large tankers typically have a boom and two underwing hose-drogue pods .On that basis and the redundancy factor implicit in twin hoses it is apparent that many receiver aircraft would be better secured and more employable if dual equipped with an AAR receptacle and an AAR probe.

There have been no reports of a version of the F-35A being either dual equipped or singly equipped with just an AAR probe. So those European and other forces which have traditionally employed buddy fighters and specialised hose-drogue - or boom and hose-drogue - tankers may be doing so knowing that acquisition of the F-35A CTOL will leave them with loose ends.

[AdamG]

Air Force Could Test "Flying Aircraft Carriers" as Early as Next Year
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/air-force-could-test-flying-aircraft-carriers-as-early-as-next-year-cm898778


What are Gremlins for ?
According to our friends at Scout Warrior , who've also been following this project closely, one key objective of the Gremlins is to extend the range at which U.S. air forces can operate in a contested environment characterized by an adversary employing A2/AD (anti-access/aerial-denial) tactics. These include the use of cruise missiles to keep aircraft carriers at bay, forcing airplanes to fly long distances to reach their targets, and surface-to-air missiles, which make it hazardous for nonstealthy aircraft to get too close to hostile territory by air.
Obviously, nonstealthy C-130 air transports aren't the best way to penetrate such defenses. After Phase 3 of the Gremlins project is complete, the Air Force will probably want to order up a stealthy "mothership" to take over the role of "flying aircraft carrier." Such a mothership -- perhaps a modified version of Northrop Grumman 's (NYSE: NOC) new B-21 bomber , or the yet-to-be revealed carrier-launched MQ-25 Stingray , could fulfill this role.

Last time we tried that...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/USS_Akron_in_flight%2C_nov_1931.jpg/220px-USS_Akron_in_flight%2C_nov_1931.jpg

[AdamG]

How to Sneak New Weapons Past Government Minders
Pentagon leaders find creative ways to avoid oversight
https://warisboring.com/how-to-sneak-new-weapons-past-government-minders/

[AdamG]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy’s new class of 20 guided-missile frigates could cost an estimated $950 million per hull, the Naval Sea Systems Command FFG(X) program manager said on Tuesday. That total is more than double the current cost per hull of both variants of the Littoral Combat Ship.
Speaking at the Surface Navy Association 2018 symposium, NAVSEA’s Regan Campbell said the new class of small surface combatant would set a so-called threshold requirement for a net average cost of $950 million for the 2nd through 20th hulls in the FFG(X) next-generation frigate program following a down select to a final shipbuilder in 2020. First-in-class for the new frigate is expected to cost more than the $950 million average.
That number is almost twice the about $460 million per-hull cost of the existing Lockheed Martin Freedom-class (LCS-1) and Austal USA Independence-class (LCS-2) Littoral Combat Ships currently under construction.

https://news.usni.org/2018/01/09/navsea-new-navy-frigate-will-cost-950m-per-hull-double-lcs-cost

and with tongue-in-cheek,
Littoral Combat Ship Actually Figurative Combat Ship (https://www.duffelblog.com/2018/01/littoral-combat-ship-actually-figurative-combat-ship/)

[AdamG]

Foreign arms sales are growing in importance to the top line of big defense firms and may get an added boost this year due to initiatives by President Donald Trump.
Sales to allies and other friendly countries also have allowed American defense companies to extend production lines that otherwise might be shuttered or downsized.
Trump's personal involvement in defense sales also hasn't gone unnoticed, whether touting $350 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia last May or suggesting in November that Japan should buy more U.S.-made equipment to shoot North Korean missiles "out of the sky."
Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, two defense companies with upcoming earnings reports, stand to benefit from increased international sales over the next few years, according to analysts. A lot of the recent growth in U.S. defense sales is in missile defense systems and Lockheed's F-35 stealth fighter jets.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/defense-manufacturers-cashing-in-on-trumps-global-arms-push/ar-AAv8mXq

[AdamG]

The U.S. military’s latest test of its Standard Missile 3 Block IIA ballistic missile interceptor has reportedly failed. So far, it’s unclear what happened, and the weapon is still in development, but it does come amid months of escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea and reports that authorities in Pyongyang are planning a parade with hundreds of ballistic missiles, likely in no small part to dissuade the U.S. government from considering a limited "bloody nose" strike.

CNN was first to report the apparent failure on Jan. 31, 2018. The test launch would be the fifth for the weapon, commonly referred to as the SM-3 Block IIA, and the third in which it attempted to actually intercept another missile. The last such experiment, which occurred in June 2017, also failed, but this was because a U.S. Navy sailor accidentally triggered the missile’s self-destruct function.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Ernest_Borgnine_McHales_Navy_1962.JPG/180px-Ernest_Borgnine_McHales_Navy_1962.JPG

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/18139/us-missile-defense-test-fails-as-n-korea-plans-parade-with-hundreds-of-ballistic-missiles

Relevant backgrounder thread (currently locked).
http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=22125&highlight=interceptor

[AdamG]

Escalating global threats from Russia to North Korea mean the U.S. military’s regional commanders must update war plans to incorporate the use -- in the most dire circumstances -- of nuclear weapons, according to the Pentagon’s latest Nuclear Posture Review.

https://i.imgur.com/idcPI6k.jpg


The Pentagon report also calls for development of a wider range of lower-yield nuclear weapons that can be launched from submarines and ships. The U.S. currently has about 1,371 nuclear weapons, down from a peak of more than 12,000 during the Cold War, and under existing treaties could raise that level to 1,550.

Mandatory glass-half-empty analysis, courtesy of HuffPo. :rolleyes:

Critics who reviewed a leaked copy of the draft published last month in the Huffington Post said the administration’s approach is reckless and makes the use of nuclear weapons more likely.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-02/trump-s-nuclear-weapons-review-boosts-role-of-regional-commands

[AdamG]

Something that pre-dates this thread, but you'll enjoy the read.

A Ship With No Ammunition
http://navy-matters.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-ship-with-no-ammunition.html

[AdamG]

MUNICH – German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen opened the Munich Security conference here today admonishing the United States, without mentioning Washington by name, for dialing back its spending on foreign development.
Her comments attempt to turn the tables somewhat on the Trump administration’s argument that European countries are freeloading on security by spending way less than the Pentagon. While von der Leyen acknowledged that Germany must increase its military expenditures, she made the case that Berlin’s budget for non-military assistance programs is an important calculus in the country’s security-policy mix.
“Germany stands by the agreement it has with NATO,” von der Leyen said, referring to the alliance’s goal that all members spend 2 percent on the military by 2025. Berlin is still far away from that objective, however, currently spending 1.25 percent.
https://www.defensenews.com/smr/munich-security-forum/2018/02/16/german-defense-chief-denounces-trump-era-focus-on-militarism/


From January 31st -

Large military contractors are indicating they’re now ready to invest in their facilities and manufacturing capacity despite so much uncertainty around the Pentagon’s spending levels this current year and into Fiscal Year 2019.
Executives from some of the largest defense contractors, in earnings calls and conversations this week with Wall Street analysts, detailed their plans to increase their planned capital expenditures this year and in the next few years.
“We will spend $1.7 billion in CapEx (capital expenditures) at Electric Boat over the next several years in anticipation of increased production on the Block V Virginia submarine and the new Columbia ballistic-missile submarine,” General Dynamics chief executive officer Phebe Novakovic told analysts last week, according to a transcript of the call provided by Seeking Alpha.
https://news.usni.org/2018/01/31/31041

[AdamG]

DAHLGREN, Va. – The Navy dedicated and named its electromagnetic railgun lines in honor of two public servants who envisioned, nurtured, and laid the foundation for the U.S. Navy’s Electromagnetic Railgun Program at a ceremony held in their honor, Feb. 22.

Posters and plaques commemorating the naming of the railgun lines for Adm. James Hogg (ret.) and Dr. Hans Mark were unveiled at the event and will be on permanent display to honor their efficacy and vision as the Navy continues working to push this revolutionary warfighting capability forward.

http://www.navsea.navy.mil/Media/News/Article/1451603/navy-railgun-lines-named-for-two-electromagnetic-railgun-visionaries-at-ceremony/


The Navy proposed spending $299 million in Fiscal Year 2019 on laser systems to protect ships against current and anticipated future threats, as part of a rapid prototyping, experimentation and demonstration initiative.
For nearly a decade, the Navy has considered laser technology a more cost-efficient and effective tool to protect ships from emerging threats such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and small patrol craft that could swarm a surface ship, according to a Congressional Research Service report, Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Hypervelocity Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress.
The Navy wants to move development of lasers a step closer to deployment, according to budget documents released by the Navy earlier this month.
https://news.usni.org/2018/02/26/laser_weapons_usnavy_330m

[AdamG]

WASHINGTON — As the production rate of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 joint strike fighter goes up, the company is wrestling with quality escapes involving the jet’s low observability features, which now amount to about half of all defects on the aircraft, the company’s vice president of the program revealed Monday.
Last week, Vice Adm. Mat Winter, the head of the government’s F-35 Joint Program Office, slammed Lockheed for what he sees as its too-slow progress on eliminating so-called “quality escapes”— errors made by Lockheed’s workforce that could include drilling holes that are too big or installing a dinged part.
While those errors are minor, the rework done to bring the plane up to requirements is driving up the amount of money and time spent producing an airplane, Winter said.
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/03/06/stealth-features-responsible-for-half-of-f-35-defects-lockheed-program-head-states/

[AdamG]

WASHINGTON — The Russian military has been jamming some U.S. military drones operating in the skies over Syria, seriously affecting American military operations, according to four U.S. officials.

The Russians began jamming some smaller U.S. drones several weeks ago, the officials said, after a series of suspected chemical weapons attacks on civilians in rebel-held eastern Ghouta. The Russian military was concerned the U.S. military would retaliate for the attacks and began jamming the GPS systems of drones operating in the area, the officials explained.


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/russia-has-figured-out-how-jam-u-s-drones-syria-n863931

[AdamG]

First look: Super smart LRASM missiles that can obliterate enemies

Stronger, faster and technologically smarter, here's a look at Long range anti surface missiles. These "super" missiles can be fired from the air or sea and is poised to deliver far more damage.
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/04/19/meet-us-militarys-warship-killer-these-new-missiles-will-sink-enemy-ships.html

[AdamG]

For a quarter century, the U.S. and its allies owned the skies, fighting wars secure in the knowledge that no opponent could compete in the air. As tensions with Russia and China surge, that’s no longer the case.

Rapid technological progress in China’s aerospace industry, particularly air-to-air missile systems fired from an aircraft, is changing the game for Western air forces and the global arms trade. It’s also altering the picture for China’s neighbors such as India.


“In the United States we’ve been on holiday for 25 years and maybe a little bit more,” Michael Griffin, under secretary of defense for research and engineering, said in a recent address to the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank. “We failed to continue to fund the practices that had gotten us where we were, which was at the very top of the technological heap.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-07/chinese-missiles-are-transforming-balance-of-power-in-the-skies

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/e8/9b/83/e89b83ff0884f46f02dc9bd44005ca2c--animal-house-meme.jpg

[AdamG]

Good & reasonable OPSEC or Brewster Aeronautical Corporation grade shenanigans? (https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/shimmer-floor-wax/n8625)

The Pentagon's $928 million hypersonic weapons program is now shrouded in secrecy

The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have shared limited details about their efforts in developing hypersonic weapons.
A U.S. Air Force spokesman said the service will not be making any announcements in the near future regarding its work on hypersonics.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/06/us-military-hypersonic-weapons-program-now-shrouded-in-secrecy.html

[AdamG]

The Pentagon has completed initial draft plans for several emerging low-yield sea-launched nuclear weapons intended to deter potential attackers and add new precision strike options to those currently possible with the existing arsenal.

While final requirements for both a low-yield sea-launched nuclear cruise missile and long-range sub-launched low-yield warhead are still in development, Pentagon officials tell Warrior Maven the process has taken several substantial new steps forward.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/06/05/pentagon-completes-draft-plans-for-new-low-yield-sea-launched-nuclear-weapon.html

[AdamG]

Anyone remember the tale of the 4th Infantry Division in 2003?

At the eleventh hour the Turkish parliament refused passage, and the division belatedly redeployed through Kuwait. (https://history.army.mil/html/books/iraq/BGIraq/html/04-03.html)



Blocking the delivery of the F-35 fighter jets to Turkey over its procurement of the Russian-made the S-400 air defense system would bring about consequences, said Turkey’s foreign minister in a meeting with two senior United States senators on the margins of the NATO Summit.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met with Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from the New Hampshire, and Tom Thillis, a Republican from North Carolina, in Brussels on July 12. Both senators initiated congressional actions against the delivery of the F-35s to Turkey because of the continued detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson and Ankara’s planned procurement of the S-400 anti-ballistic missile system from Russia.

www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-fm-urges-us-senators-over-f-35-fighter-jets-134546

[AdamG]

The US Army has a new plan for microwaving drones out of the sky. In a public solicitation last Friday, the agency announced its intention to purchase an airborne high-powered microwave system from Lockheed Martin, which is intended for use against drones. The weapon, which would be mounted to an airplane, would disable fixed-wing or quadcopter drones with a beam of focused radiation.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/7/17660414/microwave-anti-drone-army-weapon-lockheed-martin

Precedence -

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused opposition lawmakers of playing a role in a failed attempt to assassinate him over the weekend.
During a nationally televised address to Venezuelan troops on Saturday, Maduro was unhurt when explosives-laden drones exploded near the podium. In a speech on Tuesday, Maduro said Julio Borges, a prominent opposition leader living in exile in neighboring Colombia, was a co-conspirator in the plot, but he did not elaborate on what role the politician had played.
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/08/636589629/venezuelas-maduro-says-opposition-politicians-to-blame-for-assassination-attempt

[AdamG]

Amid concerns over North Korea, federal emergency managers are updating disaster plans to account for large nuclear detonations over the 60 largest US cities, according to a US Federal Emergency Management Agency official.

The shift away from planning for small nuclear devices that could be deployed by terrorists toward thermonuclear blasts arranged by “state actors” was discussed on Thursday at a two-day National Academies of Sciences workshop for public health and emergency response officials held at its headquarters across the street from the US State Department.

“We are looking at 100 kiloton to 1,000 kiloton detonations,” chief of FEMA’s chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear branch Luis Garcia told BuzzFeed News. The agency’s current “nuclear detonation” guidance for emergency planners, first released in 2010, had looked at 1 to 10 kiloton blasts — smaller than the 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs that killed more than 200,000 people at the end of World War II. Those smaller size detonations had seemed more reasonable after 9/11, with high concerns about an improvised terrorist bomb.

But last year North Korea tested an apparent thermonuclear bomb with a surprisingly large estimated blast size of 250 kilotons, a “city buster” much bigger than past test blasts and nearly the size of current US intercontinental ballistic missile warheads. The test blast kicked off a new era of nuclear anxiety in the US.

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The updated FEMA guidance would be for the 60 largest urban areas in the US and will rely on newer detonation models created by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/north-korea-nuclear-bomb-fema-plans


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0e/75/4d/0e754d656cf762e8becdde440298b4c2.jpg

[AdamG]

Passwords that took seconds to guess, or were never changed from their factory settings. Cyber vulnerabilities that were known, but never fixed. Those are two common problems plaguing some of the Department of Defense's newest weapons systems, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The flaws are highlighted in a new GAO report, which found the Pentagon is "just beginning to grapple" with the scale of vulnerabilities in its weapons systems.

Drawing data from cybersecurity tests conducted on Department of Defense weapons systems from 2012 to 2017, the report says that by using "relatively simple tools and techniques, testers were able to take control of systems and largely operate undetected" because of basic security vulnerabilities.
https://www.npr.org/2018/10/09/655880190/cyber-tests-showed-nearly-all-new-pentagon-weapons-vulnerable-to-attack-gao-says

[AdamG]

This smells like somebody in the decision making process has a brother-in-law that owns a manufacturing facility...


USSOCOM wants American companies to explore whether it is feasible to “reverse engineer or reengineer and domestically produce the following foreign-like weapons: 7.62×54R belt fed light machine gun that resembles a PKM (Pulemyot Kalashnikova Modernizirovany), and a 12.7×108mm heavy machine gun that resembles a Russian-designed NSV (Nikitin, Sokolov, Volkov).”
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/russia-bullets-why-us-special-forces-want-russian-machine-guns-32956

[davidbfpo]

Do any trusted allies produce or have produced these weapons, for example, the Czech Republic? Surely the unit cost will be far greater if made in the USA. As for the disparaging remarks about the international arms trade they made me smile.

[AdamG]

This neatly transcends Einstein's "I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

Back off to high earth orbit and drop a big stick on 'em.


The 107-country Outer Space Treaty signed in 1967 prohibits nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons from being placed in or used from Earth's orbit. What they didn't count on was the US Air Force's most simple weapon ever: a tungsten rod that could hit a city with the explosive power of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-rods-from-god-kinetic-weapon-hit-with-nuclear-weapon-force-2017-9

[AdamG]

You folks will love this one...



In 2008, the statutory Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack delivered over 100 recommendations to Congress to protect the national electric grid and other life-sustaining critical infrastructures — including communications, transportation, energy, business and finance, food and water. We were hopeful the job would get done.

Following an EMP attack, 326 million Americans could not long survive bereft of the electronic civilization that sustains their lives. EMP would be a civilization killer. In 2008, the statutory Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack delivered over 100 recommendations to Congress to protect the national electric grid and other life-sustaining critical infrastructures — including communications, transportation, energy, business and finance, food and water. We were hopeful the job would get done.

Following an EMP attack, 326 million Americans could not long survive bereft of the electronic civilization that sustains their lives. EMP would be a civilization killer. The EMP commission reports are “good news,” because they prove there is no excuse for the nation to be vulnerable. Electric grids and other life-sustaining critical infrastructures can be protected — affordably. For example, the 2008 report estimates that the electric grid’s bulk-power system can be hardened to survive for a few billion dollars.

So, in 2008, when the EMP Commission delivered what we thought then was our final report to Congress, we were hopeful America soon would be protected.

However, by 2015 — 20 years after the first open congressional EMP hearing in 1995 — the U.S. Government Accountability Office testified to Congress that not a single major recommendation of the EMP Commission had yet been implemented. Not one.

https://thehill.com/opinion/cybersecurity/411451-ignoring-emp-threat-is-a-death-sentence-for-americans

[AdamG]

By Bill Gertz, from January 24, 2019


Several nations, including China and Russia, are building powerful nuclear bombs designed to produce super-electromagnetic pulse (EMP) waves capable of devastating all electronics—from computers to electric grids—for hundreds of miles, according to a newly-released congressional study.

A report by the now-defunct Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack, for the first time reveals details on how nuclear EMP weapons are integrated into the military doctrines of China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

The report discloses how those states could use EMP attacks in theaters of battle in the Middle East, Far East, Europe, and North America.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-russia-building-super-emp-bombs-for-blackout-warfare/

See also http://www.firstempcommission.org/uploads/1/1/9/5/119571849/nuclear_emp_attack_scenarios_and_combined-arms_cyber_warfare_by_peter_pry_july_2017.pdf

[AdamG]

The Army has beefed up the firepower of some of its Stryker fleet in Europe, with 30mm cannons on some and others with remote-firing Javelin missiles, making it better ready to take on light armored and armored threats. But adversaries are finding other ways to attack the platform — with cyber.

The annual report from the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation for the Defense Department provides a detailed overview of Army, Navy and Air Force programs. The Army section contains two dozen systems with reviews and recommendations.

Two of those reports look at the Stryker-Dragoon and the Stryker CROWS-J, or Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station – Javelin and notes that both have “cybersecurity vulnerabilities that can be exploited.”

The vulnerabilities highlighted in the report were not simply revealed in testing.


While little detail is shared as to what vulnerabilities were exposed, which adversary exposed them or when this occurred, the shared language for the two systems and another comment point to something common in the hardware, not the new weaponry, on the Stryker.

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/02/19/can-the-armys-strykers-be-hacked-cyber-vulnerabilities-found-in-upgunned-vehicles/

[AdamG]

Iranian military leaders disclosed on Thursday that their intelligence operatives had infiltrated a U.S. Army Command Center and commandeered control of several American drones flying through Syria and Iraq.

Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force, released information and photographic evidence that Iran claims as proof it was able to take control of several U.S. drones.

This would not be the first time Iran commandeered such sensitive technology. Tehran assumed control of a downed U.S. drone several years ago and claimed that it had siphoned both information and technical data.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-claims-infiltration-of-u-s-command-center-commandeers-drones/