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Now that the Department of Defense has made clear its intent to move a Norfolk-based aircraft carrier to Mayport, Fla., the battle between Florida and Virginia shifts to Congress. Members of the Hampton Roads congressional delegation have pledged to fight tooth and nail to block any more money for the project. They’re taking on Florida’s congressional delegation, who outnumber the Virginians by more than two to one and are already claiming victory. Hampton Roads representatives said they are not ready to talk about what might happen if the carrier battle is lost. “We have to continue to have a united...

The final installment of Missilethreat's synopsis of the 2010 BMDR will focus on the last sections of the report—dealing with international cooperation and the missile defense bureaucratic organizational structure. International Cooperation As a broad statement of intent, the report reiterates a U.S. commitment to the fielding of "robust, pragmatic, and cost-effective" regional missile defenses as well as a commitment to "international cooperation." Regional deterrence and a re-tooling of export controls will be key aspects of the future U.S. approach to deployed missile defense abroad. In Europe, NATO will dominate any missile defense processes. The expansion of missile defenses from the...

Homeland The report discusses in some detail the current and planned deployments of U.S. missile defense, both at home and abroad. At home, the U.S. will field a total of 30 ground-based interceptors, with 26 in Alaska at Fort Greely and four in California at Vandenberg Air Force Base. (This is a reduction from Defense's original goal of 44.) As a matter of strategy, the position from earlier in the report is reinforced: the U.S. will maintain its slight advantage over the possibility of a yet-to-materialize long-range threat from North Korea or Iran, but will not seek to address missile...

The Pentagon released its 2010 Ballistic Missile Defense Review Report on Monday. After initiating a shift in missile defense policy by abandoning the ground-based interceptor plan in eastern Europe last year, the Obama administration left unclear the future of its missile defense policy. The transition to a "phased-adaptive" approach in Europe was articulated, to be sure, but there was still much fleshing out to be done. We now have the first comprehensive statement about the future of missile defense policy under the Obama administration. Part 1 of missilethreat's synopsis will treat the change in policy from the Bush administration, the...

Although the US Department of Defense has announced slashing four F-35 jets and firing the government's programme manager, Lockheed Martin says it could deliver more aircraft in 2013 than the military pays for to keep unit costs from spiralling upwards. The DoD may allow Lockheed the "opportunity" to deliver more F-35s than specifically on contract, Lockheed vice-president for business development George Standridge told Flightglobal at the Singapore airshow. Under this scenario, Lockheed would continue to build aircraft based on prices set in the 2007 selected acquisition report. Meanwhile, the DoD has decided to fund the programme based on higher cost...

The U.S. Department of Defense has ordered two more Joint High Speed Vessels (JHSV) transports. Two years, the Department of Defense set up a deal where a fleet of new JHSVs would be built, for use by all the services (mainly the army and navy.) At the time, one JHSV was ordered. These 103 meter (320 feet) long, $160 million ships are refined versions of the earlier HSV 2 ship. The army already has leased two of these HSV 2s, and the navy another. The manufacturing of the JHSVs is being done by an Australian firm, in the U.S. All...

U.S. Air Force is concerned about American dependence on space satellites, particularly the GPS birds. The air force believes China is developing the ability to carry out a major attack on American military satellites. Their proposed solution is to take GPS out of orbit, and make it portable. High flying aircraft, UAVs or blimps would take over satellite communications, surveillance and navigation (GPS) chores, although for smaller areas. This would make GPS, and other satellite functions, more resilient to attack. This is part of a trend in which military satellites are getting priced out of the market by cheaper manned...

Current and potential U.S. adversaries seek to employ asymmetrical weapons, such as improvised explosive devices and cyber warfare, as a means to confront U.S. military superiority in conventional conflict, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III said here Jan. 21. "Our dominance in conventional warfare has led adversaries to seek new avenues to challenge us," Mr. Lynn told military and civilian attendees at the 38th Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis-Fletcher Conference on National Security Strategy and Policy. The nature of armed conflict, Mr. Lynn said, has changed since the Cold War era, when military doctrine was developed to deal with...

The proposed new charter for the nation’s spy satellite builder, the National Reconnaissance Office, is stuck in the Department of Defense’s general counsel’s office. The lawyers are apparently worried that the new charter may expand the agency’s powers into areas governed by the military services. Information on all this is extremely close hold but we have heard variations on this from two very well informed sources. One phrase in the statement of principles that guides the charter appears to be the issue: “overhead reconnaissance systems.” That is the key phrase in a document, called the statement of principles. It lays...

Few know everything about what is in the latest Quadrennial Defense Review and the 2011 defense budget plan, but everybody seems to know something. “There is a consensus in support of long-range strike [LRS, also referred to as next generation bomber],” a senior Pentagon scientific advisor says. Questions about whether it will be optionally manned and have a nuclear weapon capability are still undecided. Prompt global strike by ballistic missiles armed with conventional explosives appears to have one powerful advocate: Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “It’s still alive primarily because of Cartwright’s...

The US Defense Department is slowing Lockheed Martin Corp's $300 billion F-35 fighter jet program, a multinational effort, to stabilize its schedule and costs, according to draft budget documents obtained by Reuters. The department's fiscal 2011 budget will request $10.7 billion to continue the F-35's development and to procure 42 aircraft, a budget overview shows. Overall, the plan is to cut planned purchases by 10 aircraft in fiscal 2011 and a total of 122 through 2015. The Pentagon “has adjusted F-35 procurement quantities based on new data on costs and on likely orders from our foreign nations partners and realigned...

The U.S. Department of Defense has purchased 253 Patriot anti-aircraft and anti-missile missiles. The U.S. Army has ten Patriot anti-aircraft missile battalions. Each Patriot battalion has 12-24 launchers (3-6 batteries). Each battery is manned by about a hundred troops, and contains a radar, plus four launchers. A battery can fire two types of Patriot missile. The $3.3 million PAC 3 missile is smaller than the cheaper anti-aircraft version (PAC 2), thus a Patriot launcher can hold sixteen PAC 3 missiles, versus four PAC 2s. A PAC 2 missile weighs about a ton, a PAC 3 weighs about a third of...

The Pentagon's delayed funding for a new Air Force long-range bomber is likely to be included in its fiscal spending for 2011. The on-again-off-again program has been in limbo since U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates froze it earlier this year, saying it should be assessed in the Defense Department's Quadrennial Defense Review, which reviews weapons programs every four years. Initial assessments of that review, officials say, suggest the need for both manned and unmanned long-range strike capabilities. "We are probably going to proceed with a long-range strike initiative coming out of the Quadrennial Defense Review and various other reviews going...

It's a rare kind of inspirational speech that centers around a leader highlighting the woes of his command. But Gen. Norton Schwartz, USAF Chief of Staff, managed to sound hopeful and regretful when it came to his keynote speech at the Air Force Association's Air and Space Conference and Technology Exposition last week. "We were asked to put out some wildfires that had grown out of control," Schwartz told nearly a thousand attendees, many in uniform. "But the smoke has cleared and the future is no longer obscured." Here's how he says the U.S. Air Force plans to face three...

Air Force officials successfully launched a new-generation military communications satellite from here at 8:47 p.m. EST Dec. 5 when a Delta IV rocket carried a Wideband Global SATCOM into space. WGS satellites are designed to provide high-capacity communications to U.S. military forces and the satellites will augment and eventually replace the Defense Satellite Communication System that has been the Department of Defense's backbone for satellite communications over the last two decades. Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, who had planned to witness the launch from the Morrell Operations Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station prior to a...

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz says that the service’s forthcoming budget request, though pinched by the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will likely include money for a new bomber and a new space surveillance system. The on-again-off-again Next-Generation Bomber (or NGB, also called Long-Range Strike), could re-emerge with the Pentagon’s fiscal 2011 spending request going to Capitol Hill in February, Schwartz said during a luncheon speech last week at the Credit Suisse/Aviation Week Aerospace & Defense Finance conference here. Defense Secretary Robert Gates put a hold on the NGB program last spring in...

It's been a long wait—in some ways, more than 50 years—but in April 2010, the U.S. Air Force is scheduled to launch an Atlas V booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the newest U.S. spacecraft, the unmanned X-37, to orbit. The X-37 embodies the Air Force's desire for an operational spaceplane, a wish that dates to the 1950s, the era of the rocket-powered X-15 and X-20. In other ways, though, the X-37 will be picking up where another U.S. spaceplane, NASA's space shuttle, leaves off.

Women should be allowed to serve aboard America's fleet of nuclear submarines, the nation's top military officer, Adm. Michael Mullen, quietly has told the Senate Armed Services Committee. If the Navy agrees to it, this would be a huge policy change and potentially a significant expansion of career opportunities for female officers and sailors. Women have been barred by Navy policy from submarines, even as the sea service began 15 years ago to integrate females into other seagoing combat roles including aboard surface warships and in fighter jets. Mullen, former chief of naval operations and a career surface warfare officer,...

Obama promised to neuter America before the election in one of his campaign ads to supporters: That was one promise he decided to keep. As promised, Barack Obama will go ahead with his plan to weaken America's stand in the world. The Guardian reported today that Obama is pushing a radical plan to eliminate not hundreds but thousands of the nation's strategic warheads, via Free Republic. Barack Obama has demanded the Pentagon conduct a radical review of US nuclear weapons doctrine to prepare the way for deep cuts in the country's arsenal, the Guardian can reveal. Obama has rejected the...

Defense adviser says new threats challenge dominance that the U.S. has taken for granted American military dominance is eroding in the face of an ascendant Chinese power, hostile states like Iran and the spread of sophisticated weapons and technology to militant groups, and the Pentagon must reassess its long-term strategy, according to a top defense analyst recently appointed to review Defense Department policy. In a Foreign Affairs journal piece published this month, titled "The Pentagon’s Wasting Assets," Andrew Krepinevich argues that the Pentagon needs to better prepare for this new world order by rethinking U.S. global advantages largely taken for...