“despite significant efforts to improve P-8A intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors, overall P-8A ISR mission capabilities remain limited by sensor performance shortfalls.” And the P-8A was touted as an acquisition success. Here’s Navy Matters on the P-8A. And here’s the Russians intercepting a P-8A recently.
Block buy acquisition of two Ford-class carriers. “The arrangement will save the Navy an estimated $2.5 billion to $4 billion dollars.” Its just like the DOD to rush into big procurements, promised big savings by the contractor, then they realize they rushed into immature technology.
Here’s some more: “According to the Navy, EMALS can lift up to 24,000 pounds at 150 feet a minute — instead of Nimitz-class carriers’ 10,500 pounds at 100 feet a minute.” Yes, but “We have yet to see the full report for ourselves, but DOT&E’s latest examination of Ford shows that Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) suffered 10 “critical failures” across 747 aircraft launches in at-sea trials since delivery in 2017, according to Bloomberg.”
“Papering over the real challenges at the DoD with hundreds of billions of dollars will not improve military readiness. Increasing the national debt to dramatically increase the Pentagon budget will therefore not necessarily make the nation safer—but it will compound the country’s future financial problems.”
“However, the Army is making a mistake by buying equipment that hasn’t been tested in the field, or at least in a realistic laboratory environment, GAO warns.” Yeah, the GAO and everyone has warned about that for years.
“There are multiple companies working on ‘urban air mobility’ vehicles, including Boeing’s rival Airbus, Ehang, Volocopter, Kitty Hawk, Uber Elevate, Terrafugia and PAL-V. With over 100 prototypes and some serious interest by governments around the world, aerial taxis and deliveries by flying car look to be on the cusp of reality.” Link here.
F/A-18 update: “As a result, there were not enough primary aircraft for training squadrons to complete all training missions with a full squadron,” investigators found. Uh huh. There’s not enough of aircraft, or did the Navy pilfer O&M funds to procure F-35 and more F/A-18s? The readiness crisis can’t be divorced from the procurement problem. The Navy is retiring its F/A-18C model.
Possibly related: Watchdog – Navy bought too many helicopters. I wonder what the readiness of the helicopters in operation is.
The Senate has wasted little time in questioning military leaders over their cybersecurity measures, grilling them about their preparedness at a hearing last week.
Marc Andreessen shares the 4 realities facing every entrepreneur today
“There is going to be an authoritarian way of doing AI for national security,” said Josh Marcuse, executive director of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board. — I think this article is raising the wrong questions about the whole matter.
THE BEST DEFENSE EVER? BUSTING MYTHS ABOUT THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S MISSILE DEFENSE REVIEW.
“The United States Army announced Wednesday they plan to purchase the Iron Dome weapons system that Israel has been using since 2011.” About time. If we can’t do it, then just buy it from the Israelis. You know they won’t skimp on operational test. A lot to learn from Israel’s acquisition, I think.
V-22 Osprey: The Story of the Revolutionary Tiltrotor Aircraft.
“An individual purported to be the pilot of a Russian Sukhoi Su-35S has posted a photo that is alleged to the a U.S. Air Force F-22A Raptor that supposedly was captured on the Flanker-E’s OLS-35 electro-optical infra-red search and track system.” From National Interest. So exactly how stealthy are stealth aircraft?
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