New U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers Can’t Launch F-35s Until 2027: Report.
Lockheed Martin Continues To Impress (impress investors, that is, not the weapon systems users).
Raytheon and United Technologies agree to all-stock merger that would create aerospace behemoth.
Article on the F-15EX. A slice: “Largely driven by lobbyist influence mixed with self-interest, a number of lawmakers and retired generals reflexively viewed the proposal to buy 144 F-15EXs as a threat to the 80-year 1,763 F-35A program.”
This is what state-planned technology looks like: HASC to DoD: We’ll Do The Money, You Do A Tech Strategy. Why does Congress insist on “comprehensive” technology plans?
The Air Force in 2018 decided to cancel the procurement of SBIRS 7 and 8 satellites and transition to a new program, the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared.
“Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wants to slam the revolving door shut on retired military officers and senior Pentagon bureaucrats going to work for the same defense contractors they did official business with on behalf of the government.” I’m mixed on this issue, because strict non-compete agreements in the private sector are such a bad idea (and may have been the reason Silicon Valley rather than Boston became the tech capital). Perhaps — and this is a crazy idea — pay government personnel their worth, particularly at the highest levels?
Related: the markup prohibits funding for deployment of the W76-2 low-yield nuclear warhead… Russia maintains at least a 10-to-1 advantage in this class of weapons.
JEDI saga update: “Oracle has provided new details to support its accusation that Amazon secretly negotiated a job offer with a then-Department of Defense official.” If JEDI is the “winner take all” cloud contract, then Oracle will protest until the cows come home.
Air Force general: “[Electronic warfare is] an area that we’re behind our adversaries, we’re not moving fast.” Apparently, Russia has an EW Shield “capable of jamming satellite and drone communications, GPS signals, and other navigational system at range up to to 5K to 8K kilometers.”
“Flying-V” airplane design promises fuel savings, but there’s a catch.
Scientists Predict Quantum Jumps, Turning Physics on Its Head.
No Stealth for You: India Says It Can ‘Track’ China’s New J-20 Fighter. Here’s one assessment: “While the J-20 would likely remain outclassed by the F-22, it could potentially prove a dangerous adversary to the F-35, which is not as optimized for within-visual-range engagements.”
Here’s what the first few years of US Space Command might look like. It will lead operations and develop doctrine, not clear how it will interact with the Space Development Agency (SDA) — like a supplier/consumer relationship?
Perhaps related: Why Is SPAWAR Now NAVWAR? Networks & Cyber Warfare. NAVWAR will continue to include a Space Systems Program Executive Office, which might mean that not all space development gets consolidated into the SDA.
UAE deal for AW609 tiltrotors looks in doubt.
MiG-25 pilot who shot down Speicher’s F/A-18, could have shot down an A-6 too.
Senate panel’s defense bill would boost A-10 rewinging effort. The NDAA includes $144M extra for the A-10, and goes $1,100M above the Pentagon’s request for the F-35…
“The Pentagon has hit the pause button on a troubled effort to redesign the kill vehicle on the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system’s interceptors after reporting a two-year delay in its development earlier this year.” Link is here. The unasked questions are: how (in)effective are the current exoatmospheric kill vehicles? Was the redesign failing in the same way? Are they putting the cart before the horse and leap frogging to the multi-object kill vehicles?
French drone maker Parrot selected to develop spy aircraft for the US military. A slice: “military drone applications constitute about 70 percent of the market, with consumer applications just 17 percent and non-military uses like filmmaking and climate modeling in the commercial realm just 13 percent.”
US initiates $190 million fund to get allied nations off of Russian gears, with promise of expansion. It’s viewed as “manna from heaven” by US defense industry. Of course, Europeans always had a choice to buy American, they just didn’t see it as cost-beneficial — until the subsidies from US taxpayers came into play…
Wild Footage Shows Lightning Strike Russia’s Soyuz Rocket Mid-Launch.
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