Category: Defense Procurement

USAF Looking at Another Bite at the Raptor Apple

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Despite the best efforts of the Pentagon, which has determined that further F-22s are not necessary, the US air force is still trying to buy more of the gold plated fighters. (paid subscription required)

Of course, the USAF has said for years that they need 381, but now because they see that this number is impossible, they are trying to go for about 100 aircraft less, specifically something in the 250-275 range.

There is a word for this behavior, insubordination, and the civilians who are constitutionally in charge need to put a stop to this.

And Now the Existing F-22 Fleet is Becoming Unaffordable

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That is the unintended message from Pentagon acquisition executive John Young, who is asking for $8 Billion to upgrade the first 100 or so jets.

And it’s not just upgrades, the operational costs are spiking too:

But that’s not all the next Pentagon leaders will have to debate about the super-secret Raptor, he said. He said operational tests have showed the plane is “proving very expensive to operate.”

Those tests have shown what he called a negative trend, meaning the “maintenance man-hours per flying hour has increased through those tests. The last one was a substantial increase.”

Young also expressed concerns about the plane’s mission-capable rates, saying recent marks in the “62 percent kind of range” are “troubling.” He also said data shows the plane “meets some but not all” of its key performance parameters.”

Seriously, the Airforce won’t take budgeting and maintenance issues seriously until we take an entire generation of the Air Force’s latest and greatest to the Boneyard, Davis-Monthan AFB and chop them to bits while the UASF Chief of Staff is forced to watch.

This crap is absolutely out of control.

NG Announces Plug-In Tactical Laser

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The good folks at Northrop Grumman Space Technology have announced a 15kW solid state laser module.

It’s a rack mount, though at 15 kW, your backplane on your rack better have some heavy duty busbars.

Still, the fact that what appears to be a fieldable electrically powered laser is available for military deployment, though it is unclear as to how soon this would actually hit series production, seems to be an important development.

Certainly, it is a step up from the expensive and messy chemical lasers that we are seeing in places like Boeing’s airborne laser, which would appear to need an environmental impact statement each time that it fires.

Northrop Grumman Announces the FIRESTRIKE™ Laser, World’s First Weaponized Solid-State Laser for U.S. Military Services:
‘This is a rugged electric laser with power levels, beam quality and runtime suitable for offensive and defensive military utility. Also available is a newly designed laser current source assembly (LCSA), which is compact, and specifically developed to precisely meet FIRESTRIKE(tm)’s power needs. Combined with advanced electro optical and/or infrared sensors, the FIRESTRIKE(tm) laser can provide self-defense, precision strike and enhanced situational awareness capabilities.’

Damn, That Was Fast

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US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has begun purchases of the Boeing Hummingbird helicopter UAV. They expect to take delivery of at least 10 units this month.

Considering the fact that it was still in test and demonstration earlier this year, this is a blindingly fast fielding, at least by US military standards, which implies that there is some sort of immediate application:

US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has begun purchasing a new unmanned helicopter, Boeing’s A160T Hummingbird, which can be used for resupply and surveillance missions and will soon be equipped with a new radar that can identify enemy targets hiding beneath dense tree cover.

Note that the bar under the fuselage is not a wing, it’s the foliage penetrating radar.

USAF Playing Budget Make-Believe on JSF

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The USAF is trying to boost JSF funding to move forward development and production.

This is not achievable:

The JSF program has set itself some lofty goals. Even with the new mid-2014 date for the completion of operational testing (OT) the flight-test team has to average 70-plus sorties per month, starting yesterday, to get there. (This is based on the 5100 total sorties mentioned in a GAO report early this year.)

That’s as many flights as the program has notched up in the past two years.

So,what is going on?

I think that they art either looking at a larger buy, or they want to make sure that they have spent so much money that cutbacks are simply not viable.

When you consider that military spending is the highest that it has been since the end of WWII, with fewer troops, ships, and planes than at any time since WWII, this is an indicator of profound dysfunction/

Israeli 120mm Mortar Carrier

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It’s called the CARDOM, and it’s based on the M113 APC.

It includes digital systems to lay the mortar on target in less than 30 seconds from receipt of coordinates, and then can fire with a burst rate of 16 rpm, followed by a sustained rate of 4rpm.

I will simply note that it does everything that the Future Combat Systems NLOS-M (Non-Line-of-Sight Mortar) does in a lighter, and much cheaper package.

This stuff isn’t rocket science, so why is the US military paying rocket science prices?

Another Problem With FCS

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David Axe notes a potential problem with the NLOS-C (Non Line of Sight-Cannon), the Howitzer variant of the the Future Combat System Manned Ground Vehicles (FCS-MGV) which the Army intends to have replace nearly all existing US armored vehicles.

Specifically, by virtue of the high level of sophistication and automation, the NLOS-C has a crew of only two, as compared to 4 for the current howitzer, the Paladin.

If the future NLOS-C units reduce their manning requirements to fill the minimum number of people needed to operate the systems without considering the need to maintain continuous operations and endure battle losses, the expensive high-speed cannon might be silent when needed because an adequate number of Soldiers are not available to operate it.

A commenter on his blog notes that for for a 6 tube battery, you have 42 men, 4 per paladin, and 3 on each of the 6 ammunition carriers, for a total of 42 men.

For NLOS-C, with automated firing and loading, this is likely down to 24 men, possibly fewer depending on how the army allocates loading vehicles, and the loss of one man on any of these vehicles will likely take that out of action.

With the current setup, the Paladin and its loading vehicles can operate at reduced capacity with short crews. The same is not realistic with a lone crewman operating a vehicle.

Additionally, in a situation like Iraq and Afghanistan, which is still the most likely conflict scenario, it is likely that these troops would not just be assigned to artillery duty, but also to, “non-standard missions, which require the Soldiers to anything from patrols to base security”, which, “demand at least the current number of Soldiers, if not more, to complete such missions.”

It appears that one of the institutional myths present in Pentagon doctrine is that the individual soldier is ruinously expensive, and replacing him/her with technology or private contractors will create a more effective, and more cost effective war fighting force.

The performance of systems and reduced crews, in addition to the performance of mercenaries private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, has proven this assumption to be disastrously wrong.

When the F-15 Would be Better Than the F-22

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The USAF is looking at replacing all the mechanically scanned radars with electronically scanned AESA radars.

A dirty little secret is that this would make the F-15 superior to the F-22 in some of the missions that it is most touted in, particularly cruise missile interception, because of basic physics.

The F-15 has a larger space in the nose for a radar, so the aperture, and hence resolution and range, woudl be greater.

Picture pr0n below:

Coast Guard Stripped of Acquisition Power

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Following the Coast Guard’s Deepwater modernization program, I am not surprised that the Department of Homeland Security has stripped the Coast Guard of acquisition authority, so that now the DHS will have to sign off on, and supervise all contracts.

To be fair, this is not entirely the Coast Guard’s fault. Deepwater was managed under the Lead System Integrator (LSI) model, which is best defined as trusting the fox to manage the hen house.

Now, if only we could do the same with the USAF and Navy.

South African Rooivalk Attack Helo Still in Limbo

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I always thought that this was a promising project, particularly in an COINS application, as the SADF had that as its primary duty before the end of Apartheid.

It appears that I was wrong and the Rooivalk program is a mess (paid subscription required).

Only 12 production helos were delivered, there are no prospects for foreign sales, and they have dissimilar avionics fits across the fleet, and they are now talking about, “revised functionality within the existing allocated financial resources,” which means downgraded capabilities.

$206 Billion Cost Growth: 5 Weapons Systems

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Yep, just five weapons gave us $206 billion in cost overruns:

  • Lockheed Martin Corp.: F-35 Lightning II, $66.8 billion
  • Boeing: Future Combat Systems, $69.7 billion
  • Lockheed and Boeing’s: Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, $18.5 billion
  • General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman: Virginia-class SSN, $27.3
  • Various: Chemical Demilitarization program, $23.4 billion

The last one covers a number of contractors, and is for destroying US Chemical warfare stockpiles.

How the hell do you go that far over budget incinerating nerve gas? Just how much of this stuff is lying around in arsenals?

Seriously DoD procurement is completely out of control, and it’s going to take us down the way it took down the USSR.

Indian Navy Looks to Nuke Sub Lease Deal

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The Amur shipyard in Russia has started sea trials on the “kinda sorta new” Akula II boat.

It’s not completely new, construction was halted in 1991, but this is a very capable boat, and the Indians are getting for $650 million for a 10 year lease.

FWIW, I think that the cost has to be understated, even if the Russians are desparate to maintain their shipyards capabilities, this is a 10 cent sale.

JLTV Update

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The army had delayed the announcement downselection of proposals for the Hummvee replacement though the scuttlebutt is that there are three designs that will go on to the next , and they are buying interim mine resistant vehicles for Afghanistan.

The existing MRAPs are faring poorly on Afghanistan’s generally crappy roads and harsh terrain.

It’s either budget, or a problem with the program causing the delay.

Danger room has a report on the awards, but no link yet.

It’s confirmed. The winners for this stage are Lockheed Martin; a joint venture between General Dynamics Land Systems and AM General, and BAE Systems.

Of interest, no hybrid vehicles.