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SOCOM soon getting more
capable, deadlier Ospreys and C-130s


TAMPA, FLA. — U.S. Special Operations Command may have a relatively small budget with which to add the latest generation of widgets to its fixed-wing fleet, but commando leaders say they're making those dollars count — and doing so quickly. Plans briefed to industry at the annual SOFIC conference here include adding a forward-facing gun and better armor to its 50 CV-22 Ospreys, Hellfire missiles to the AC-130 fleet, along with new command and control and radio frequency jammers and countermeasures to both platforms that can be rolled on and rolled off, depending on the mission. But money is an issue. "If you've got a million-dollar widget you want to put on the [Osprey] — there's 50 of them. We can't afford a $50 million program," Lt. Col. John DiSebastian, SOCOM's C-130 and CV-22 program director, told a small group of defense industry reps Wednesday. "But if you've got a $100,000 or a $50,000 widget that can improve the sustainment, capability, or ops of the aircraft, then bring that to us." DiSebastian stressed that he's looking for opportunities to do low-cost modifications on the tilt- rotor aircraft, hinting that the playing field is still pretty wide open as the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) is continuing to refine and tweak how the CV-22 is employed. But that doesn't mean the commandos haven't already outlined a path forward. After three of AFSOC's Ospreys were shot up over Juba, South Sudan in December, resulting in the injuries of four Marines on board, the command realized that the birds needed better armor.


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SOCOM soon getting more capable, deadlier Ospreys and C-130s | Air Force Times | airforcetimes.com
 

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Navy Considers it's Beyond-
the-Horizon Future


The Navy is in the early phases of considering new sensors, aircraft and weapons it could add to its beyond-the-horizon strike and cruise missile intercept system, service officials said. The system, called Naval Integrated Fire Control – Counter Air, or NIFC-CA, uses a Standard Missile 6 and an E-2D Hawkeye aircraft as an airborne sensor to track and destroy approaching cruise missiles at much longer distances than existing technologies can. NIFC-CA uses an airborne sensor and the SM-6 missile to enable ships to locate and destroy approaching threats from distances well beyond the existing radar horizon, Navy officials said. Although still in the middle of a rigorous testing regiment in preparation for deployment in 2015, the NIFC-CA system is showing promise and leading Navy thinkers, developers and futurists to contemplate additional uses for the technology. "Can we develop other sensors which we can incorporate into the architecture of the future? What are future platforms going to have to do with NIFC-CA? Is the Joint Strike Fighter going to have a role with NIFC-CA? Is there a UAV component that we could use in the future?" Capt. James Kilby, Deputy for Ballistic Missile Defense, AEGIS Combat Systems and Destroyers in the Surface Warfare Directorate, told Military"‹ .com in an interview. Working in tandem with airborne sensors, the SM-6 missile uses an active and semi-active seeker to locate and guide itself toward targets beyond the horizon, said Michael Campisi, senior director, SM-6, Raytheon. "The SM-6 is a multi-mission missile.


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http://www.dodbuzz.com/2014/05/22/navy-considers-its-beyond-the-horizon-future/
 

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Harris announces US Navy
Falcon III Manpack radio
order


Harris Corporation will supply the US Navy with the Falcon III Multi- channel Manpack tactical radio under an initial order announced on 20 May. The radio will allow the customer to expand capabilities as battlefield requirements develop in future. The Multi-channel Manpack radio is designed to operate over the new Mobile User Objective System military communications satellite without any hardware changes. Harris developed the system to meet the requirements of the Handheld, Manpack, Small Form Factor tactical radio programme. It hosts all required US government wideband and narrowband waveforms, and supports multi-channel cross- banding. George Helm, president, Department of Defense business, Harris RF Communications, said: 'The new Harris Multi-channel Manpack represents a quantum leap in tactical communications technology. It is a modular, software-defined radio that recognises the battlefield is never static. With its two channels and expansion slot, it allows users to deploy the capabilities they need to be successful.' Harris is scheduled to deliver the radios to Naval Special Warfare in the autumn of 2014.

Harris announces US Navy Falcon III Manpack radio order - News - Shephard
 

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http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I0upKy8klp8
May 21, 2014. Standard Missile Completes First Test Launch from Aegis Ashore Test Site. The Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Navy, and sailors at the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Test Complex and Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), successfully conducted the first flight test involving components of the Aegis Ashore system. During the test, a simulated ballistic missile target was acquired, tracked, and engaged by the Aegis Weapon System. At approximately 7:35 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time, May 20 (1:35 a.m. EDT, May 21), the Aegis Weapon System fired a Standard Missile (SM)-3 Block IB guided missile from the Vertical Launch System. Several fire control and engagement functions were exercised during the test. A live target missile launch was not planned for this flight test. The primary purpose of the test, designated Aegis Ashore Controlled Test Vehicle (AA CTV) -01, was to confirm the functionality of Aegis Ashore by launching a land-based SM-3. The Aegis Ashore system uses a nearly identical configuration of the Vertical Launch System, fire control system, and SPY-1 radar currently in use aboard Aegis cruisers and destroyers deployed around the world. This flight test supports development of the Aegis Ashore capability of Phase 2 of the European Phased Adaptive Approach, planned to begin operations in Romania in 2015.
 

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SAIC wins Assault Amphibious
Vehicle support work


Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) will engineer, design and test upgrades of prototype and low-rate initial production (LRIP) vehicles for the US Marine Corps' legacy Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) Personnel Carrier Variant Platform programme under a new contract announced on 27 May. The multiple-award, firm fixed- price contract was awarded by the USMC Program Executive Office - Land Systems (PEO-LS). The AAV platform is designed to deliver soldiers from 'ship to shore to objective'. The highly mobile amphibious vehicle is capable of assaulting any shoreline from the well decks of naval assault vessels. Its tracked and armoured design then provides for the transport of marines and cargo through hostile territory. SAIC's work on the contract includes updates of ten prototype and 52 LRIP AAV vehicles to provide improved protection while gaining back land and water mobility that improves the AAV's ability to fight. Tom Watson, senior vice president and general manager of the navy and marine corps customer group, said: 'SAIC's approach builds upon its successful support to similar vehicles, such as the AAVC7 and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected class of combat vehicles. SAIC's past performance demonstrates its ability to adhere to schedule, improve existing vehicles from assembly to integration and test, and still reduce risk and cost.' The contract has a 10-month period of performance and an initial contract value of $16 million to execute preliminary and critical design reviews. Additional options for prototype vehicle build and testing followed by low rate initial production may be exercised, resulting in a total contract value of more than $192 million over five years.
SAIC wins Assault Amphibious Vehicle support work - News - Shephard
 

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Navy Arms, Upgrades Fire
Scout UAS


The Navy is adding weapons and a new maritime search radar to Fire Scout drone, a helicopter-like vertical take-off UAS now conducting tests aboard the Littoral Combat Ship, service officials said. The weapons being added to the Fire Scout are part of a program that fires laser-guided 2.75 inch, folding-fin rockets called Advanced Kill Precision Weapons System, or APKWS. Using laser guidance to paint and pinpoint targets for the Fire Scout, APKWS was able to conduct successful land-based test firings, said Capt. Patrick Smith, program manager for multi-mission tactical unmanned air systems. "We've demonstrated an ability to designate and shoot APKWS from Fire Scout. The next-step is ship based testing," Smith said. Ship testing, however, is on hold due to ship availability, Navy officials said. The live-fire testing for APKWS and Fire Scout took place at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif. The Navy is considering having the Fire Scout MQ-8B fire APKWS rockets over the sea sometime in the future, he added. In fact, while over-the-sea APKWS testing is uncertain for the MQ-8B, the Navy is planning to test APKWS on its newer, larger variant of the Fire Scout, the MQ-8C, in 2015, service officials said. Meanwhile, a new radar, slated to deploy on the Fire Scout aboard the USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) in 2015, will greatly extend the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, range of the aircraft, Smith explained. The existing electro-optical and infrared cameras on the Fire Scout have a range of six-to-ten miles, whereas the new maritime radar will be able to find targets at ranges out to 80 nautical miles, Smith said.


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http://defensetech.org/2014/06/10/navy-arms-upgrades-fire-scout-uas/#more-23068
 

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Pentagon Sets Trying Again After Failed Anti- Missile Test

June 11 (Bloomberg) --The Pentagon set June 22 for a next test of whether its $34 billion ground-based defense system can intercept an intercontinental ballistic missile. The effort to hit and destroy a dummy missile will be attempted with an improved Raytheon Co. (RTN) warhead fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California against a target launched from a Pacific test range, the Missile Defense Agency's congressional liaison office said in an e-mail yesterday to Senate and House defense committees. The newest version of the warhead will carry a redesigned inertial navigation unit and software upgrades, according to the e-mail. The Pentagon hasn't conducted a successful interception using the ground-based system since 2008. Two 2010 tests failed, as did one last July that used the older warhead that's on 20 of the 30 interceptors based in silos at Vandenberg and Fort Greely, Alaska. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has said that successful testing of the new warhead is a prerequisite for the Pentagon's plan to add 14 interceptors in Alaska by 2017 to counter what U.S. officials say is a growing threat from North Korea. Vice Admiral James Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency, told the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee today that a non-interception test of the new warhead in January 2013 found that a redesign had damped vibrations that caused one of the 2010 failures. The other 2010 failure was caused by quality issues that Raytheon has corrected, the agency has said. The agency stopped taking deliveries of warheads from Waltham, Massachusetts-based Raytheon after the 2010 failures.

Pentagon Sets Trying Again After Failed Anti-Missile Test - Bloomberg
 

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http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140616/DEFREG02/306160011[/URL


WASHINGTON — Flights of the F-35 joint strike fighter were temporarily halted over the weekend in order to inspect an engine valve, the Pentagon said Monday.

Pentagon officials halted flights Friday in order to inspect the oil flow management valve fitting inside the F135 engines that power the fighter. However, the program office says most F-35s are back flying. The engines are manufactured by Pratt & Whitney.

The decision to inspect the valve was made following a Tuesday incident where a Marine piloting an F-35B model near the service's Yuma, Arizona, base was forced to make an emergency landing after the plane began warning of oil loss. There were no injuries involved in the incident, but program officials ran an analysis of the situation and concluded the problem could be widespread enough that they required an analysis of the fleet.

That engine issue has been identified as a "supply line to engine bearings and a Rosan fitting that separated from the body of the [valve]," according to a Pentagon statement by program spokeswoman Kyra Hawn.

The statement also noted that the problem was found in three engines inspected at Yuma, but none at the other test sites flying the F-35.

"This one-time fleet-wide inspection takes approximately 90 minutes per engine," Pratt spokesman Matthew Bates said, before adding that "nearly all" aircraft were back and flying by Saturday evening. Bates said the company anticipates concluding inspections by the end of Monday.

The decision to ground the fleet came just hours after top program officials told reporters during a conference call that the F-35 was largely moving forward as planned.

It's a potential black eye right before a pivotal movement for the fighter — first flight over international soil at the Farnborough Air Show in July. Program supporters have hailed the plane's appearance at the show as a milestone achievement that proves the program is on the right track; it could also serve as a way to entice more international customers to consider the plane.

However, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin says the company has not altered plans for flying at the air show.

Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Virginia-based Teal Group, said this issue should not be seen as a larger indictment of the program as a whole.

"Glitches are a problem with a complicated program, and the F-35 certainly is no exception," he said. "It's far more complicated than most new programs. This is just one of many headache

 

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Lockheed Martin to modify 11 C-5 aircraft

Lockheed Martin will modify 11 C-5 transport aircraft for the US Air Force as part of the C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Re- engining Program (RERP). The company was issued a $222.9 million modification to its existing contract for the work on 18 June. Under the RERP programme a number of enhancements are installed to the C-5 aircraft – including the installation of new GE engines - to improve reliability, maintainability and availability in order to extend the C-5M fleet life through 2040. The 69 aircraft modifications increase aircraft performance, payload capability & transportation throughput. Lockheed Martin will perform the modifications at Marietta, Georgia, with work expected to be completed by January 2017.
Lockheed Martin to modify 11 C-5 aircraft - News - Shephard
 

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Seventh Fleet Tests
Innovative Missile
Defense System


GUAM (NNS) - Seventh Fleet and the Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC) tested how radar-absorbing, carbon-fiber clouds can prevent a missile from detecting and striking its target, June 21-25. The Navy tested these man-made clouds, called maritime obscurant generator prototypes, to assess their tactical effectiveness for anti-ship missile defense. The systems and tactics were tested under a variety of at-sea conditions using assets from the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force to evaluate how the radar- absorbing, carbon-fiber clouds can protect naval assets as part of a layered defense. Adm. Robert Thomas, Commander U.S. Seventh Fleet, kicked off the multi-ship experiment in Guam. "Pandarra Fog is example of the quick-turn integrated technical and tactical development the Fleet is doing to master electromagnetic maneuver warfare and assure access of joint forces," said Thomas. "Pandarra Fog showed the value of quickly bringing together scientific and joint forces to tackle our hardest warfighting problems,"said Antonio Siordia, U.S. Seventh Fleet's Science Advisor. "This isn't just smoke or chaff, this is high tech obscurant which can be effective against an array of missile homing systems." A shipboard device generated the carbon-fiber particles which were suspended in a cloud of smoke. These clouds can absorb or diffuse radar waves emanating from the seekers of incoming missiles and potentially obscure friendly ships from those missiles.


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http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=81918
 
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