Free Republic

How Australia Is Networking Its Forces By David A. Fulghum Canberra and Washington Australia is integrating three new operational elements into its advanced, network-centric military—a squadron of Wedge­tail aircraft, the first two squadrons of F/A-18F Super Hornets and the Vigi­lare theater surveillance integration system. All are designed as the backbone of a small, highly responsive force. The country is refashioning its armed services as the core of an international force—integrating a variety of foreign participants—that will be capable of responding to military emergencies or natural disasters. However, this cutting-edge organization was envisioned somewhat differently only five years ago. The Boeing...

Joint High Speed Vessel: Great Potential, But Questions Remain March 2011 By Grace V. Jean The Defense Department this decade will build a fleet of new high-speed aluminum ships specifically designed to shuttle hundreds of troops and tons of cargo around a theater of operations. These shallow-draft logistics ships, analysts say, will become valuable vehicles for executing “soft power” missions — responding to natural disasters, providing humanitarian assistance, conducting port visits and training partner military forces, among others. The Defense Department currently accomplishes this role using traditional warships such as the Navy’s “big deck” amphibious vessels. Analysts say the joint...

The Navy has passed a major milestone in its quest to build an incredibly powerful new anti-aircraft gun. Scientists with the Navy's Office of Naval Research have demonstrated a prototype system capable of producing from thin air the electrons needed to generate ultrapowerful, "megawatt-class" laser beams for the agency's next-generation system. (snip)Navy ships have become vulnerable in modern times to supersonic missiles because of their slower defense systems, the agency worries. "The FEL is expected to provide future U.S. Naval forces with a near-instantaneous laser ship defense in any maritime environment throughout the world,” Saulter said.

Five landings are the first of 42 needed to move to at-sea trialsOf all the F-35 Lightning II variants currently in testing, the most troubled has been the F-35B STOVL fighter. The aircraft has had recurring issues with sub-components that are failing at higher than expected rates leading to problems and delays in the flight program. The F-35B fighter was also dealt a blow when the program was recently put on a 2-year probationary period. Lockheed is still hard at work on the F-35B and the aircraft has shown some progress recently. Defense News reports that the aircraft has had a series of five...

Rolls-Royce to Power Ten Littoral Combat Ships for the U.S Navy (Source: Rolls-Royce plc; issued January 16, 2011) Rolls-Royce, the global power systems company, will supply gas turbines and waterjets for ten of the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) – the Group’s largest ever marine naval surface ship contract. Designed to operate in combat zones close to the shore (littoral waters), each LCS will be equipped with two Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines powering four large waterjets, enabling the vessels to reach speeds in excess of 40 knots. At 36 megawatts, the MT30 is the world’s most powerful marine gas...

With Air Force's new drone, 'we can see everything'By Ellen Nakashima and Craig Whitlock Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, January 2, 2011; 12:09 AM In ancient times, Gorgon was a mythical Greek creature whose unblinking eyes turned to stone those who beheld them. In modern times, Gorgon may be one of the military's most valuable new tools. This winter, the Air Force is set to deploy to Afghanistan what it says is a revolutionary airborne surveillance system called Gorgon Stare, which will be able to transmit live video images of physical movement across an entire town. The system, made up...

Globemaster III tops mark in Afghan airdrop. This early C-17, built by McDonnell Douglas in the pre-Boeing days, takes off from the Barstow-Daggett Airfield as part of a 30-day Air Force evaluation of the military cargo planes. A Globemaster III topped the 2,000,000 flying hour mark in Afghanistan. (Steven Georges / Press-Telegram) LONG BEACH — The worldwide fleet of C-17 Globemaster III airlifters built by The Boeing Company surpassed 2 million flying hours during an airdrop mission over Afghanistan on Dec. 10. Reaching 2 million flight hours equates to 1.13 billion nautical miles -- the equivalent of a C-17 flying...

Littoral Combat Ship Miracle Bids Likely To Be Accepted By Congress 20:26 GMT, December 15, 2010 Recent testimony by senior officials of the U.S. Department of the Navy before the Senate Appropriations Committee reveal the source of their new-found enthusiasm for buying both variants of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). Apparently both bidders, Lockheed Martin and Austal, came in with bids one-third lower than the price being charged for the initial set of four vessels. At $440-460 million a copy for the sea frame, the opportunity to acquire a mixed fleet of LCS is almost irresistible. Moreover, these “miracle bids”...

Revamped Navies On Display At Euronaval By Christina Mackenzie, Pat Toensmeier, Robert Wall Paris, Paris, Paris The future of naval warfare continues to tack toward smaller vessels, littoral operations and security missions. Add to this the budget constraints most navies are working with and the need for multimission capabilities, and itÂ’s clear that much of the emerging naval technology is being directed at these needs. This was apparent at the biennial Euronaval exhibition here Oct. 25-29. Companies displayed expertise in major capital programs, whether ships, weapons or aircraft. But most stressed the ability to tailor existing systems to reduced budgets...

CAPE CANAVERA -- Delta 4 Rocket Blasts Off With U.S. Spy Agency's "Largest Satellite in the World" - Believed to be 328 Feet Wide *********************************************** ( not sure I believe that....)*************************************A powerful Delta 4 rocket roared to life and climbed away from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Sunday evening on a high-priority mission to boost a National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite into orbit. Under a cloudy sky, the hydrogen-fueled engines in the three common core boosters of the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 ignited with a rush of orange fire at 5:58 p.m. EST and quickly throttled up...

Euronaval 2010: Specialised UAV ships becoming the rage? October 27, 2010 Shipbuilders are looking to the future producing designs that cater for the launch of UAVs. While helicopter landing spots are now a regular feature, even on small naval patrol vessels, naval engineers are turning their attentions to the facilities that might be needed as more and more conventional and vertical take-off and landing UAVs begin to embark on vessels at sea. DCNS' SMX-25 submarine concept is perhaps one of the most extraordinary vessel designs on display at Euronaval. The diesel electric submarine has been designed to launch UAVs and...

I have never seen anything like this, a military Jeep torn completely down and rebuilt in under four minutes. This isn’t some gimmick either, they drove it to and from the exhibition. While not "tech" related, this is definitely one of the coolest things you will see all day.

OTTAWA - Canada will buy 65 F-35 fighter jets for $9 billion, the government announced Friday. Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced the deal at a glitzy press conference with officials from Lockheed Martin and the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft program. Maintenance and repairs over the next 20 years are expected to cost $7 billion. MacKay said the government chose the F-35 without a public bidding process because it's the only plane that meets Canada's needs, and because Canada is a partner in the JSF program. Critics have decried the contract as "secretive," and "reckless" because they argue other fighter jets...

India joins bat-wing large UAV club By Stephen Trimble on June 18, 2010 12:20 PM India aerospace journalist Shiv Aroor's LiveFist blog today brings us the first conceptual renderings of AURA, the stealth UCAV project that India apparently decided to leak into the public domain a few weeks ago. India's is part of a growing global craze for bat-wing-shaped UAVs. Consider the following list of acknowledged, bat-wing UCAV projects in development across the world: * BAE Systems Taranis * Boeing Phantom Ray * Dassault Neuron * Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel * Mikoyan Skat * Northrop Grumman X-47B Perhaps the most...

Parked all around Naval Base San Diego are impressive vessels that patrol waters all over the globe and in recent years we have been lucky enough to get a front row seat for Aegis Missile Tests, Aircraft Carrier Homeports and the war on terror in the Persian Gulf. Ships like the 'USS Ronald Reagan', 'USS Lake Erie' and the 'USS Milius' have given us an amazing insight into the workings of the world's most powerful Navy and the hard-working sailors and marines who keep us in charge on the seas.FOLLOW ADAM ON TWITTERAs the sun tries to peak through the...

A problem that rendered as many as 10,000 U.S. military GPS receivers useless for days is a warning to safeguard a system that enemies would love to disrupt, a defense expert says. The Air Force has not said how many weapons, planes or other systems were affected or whether any were in use in Iraq or Afghanistan. But the problem, blamed on incompatible software, highlights the military's reliance on the Global Positioning System and the need to protect technology that has become essential for protecting troops, tracking vehicles and targeting weapons. "Everything that moves uses it," said John Pike, director...

A team of amateur sky watchers has pierced the veil of secrecy surrounding the debut flight of the nation’s first robotic spaceplane, finding clues that suggest the military craft is engaged in the development of spy satellites rather than space weapons, which some experts have suspected but the Pentagon strongly denies. Last month, the unmanned successor to the space shuttle blasted off from Florida on its debut mission but attracted little public notice because no one knew where it was going or what it was doing. The spaceship, known as the X-37B, was shrouded in operational secrecy, even as civilian...

India Embraces Defense Technology Road Map By Asia-Pacific Staff New Delhi India is embracing medium- and long-range precision-strike weapons, short-range directed-energy air defenses and unmanned combat air vehicles as key aspirations for its future arsenal, according to a technology plan expected to be released imminently. The need for these capabilities is spelled out in the defense ministry’s ambitious Technology Perspective and Capability Road Map 2010, its first effort to provide industry with an overview of what the armed services hope to field by the middle of the next decade. The document’s stated intent is to drive the “technology and development...

Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Cheyenne (SSN-773) in conjunction with Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet and members of Naval Special Warfare Group (NSWG) 3 successfully fired a Block IV-E Tomahawk Land Attack Missile. The missile launch took place off the southern coast of California into China Lake Test Range and marks the first time a forward-deployed operational command acted as the Tomahawk strike coordinator and primary missile controller for an operational test launch. "The Navy's ability to conduct strike operations on re-locatable targets is currently very challenging," said Master Chief Fire Controlman (SW) David Brewer, U.S. 7th Fleet Tomahawk strike coordinator....

military did no advance testing on a specific type of military GPS receiver that had problems picking up locator signals after a change in ground-control software, the Air Force said Monday. The Air Force tested other equipment, but none of it contained the type of receiver that was unable to lock on to Global Positioning System satellites after the change, said Joe Davidson, a spokesman for the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. The manufacturer of the receivers, Trimble Advanced and Military Systems, said it ran its own advance tests using specifications from the Air Force GPS Wing and...