US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

[SlothmanAllen]

Per the tireless (but, in fact, recently retired) Ronald O'Roarke

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:

To add to your point, they've recently discussed expanding the SSBN fleet to 16 instead of the planned 12 to get closer to a 1 to 1 replacement in terms of Trident missiles carried.

“The existing capability we have includes 14 Ohio-class boats with 20 tubes. So that's 280 launch tubes. The program of record is a minimum of 12 Columbia with 16 tubes each, and that's 192. So that's 280 versus 192,” Correll

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the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Submarines are the tip of the spear for our nuclear capabilities. The problem is we can’t seem to build them fast enough,” Tuberville said. “What flexibility and capability does STRATCOM gain if we were able to field 16 Columbia class submarines versus 12?”

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker chimed in. "The answer is that we very much need to do that. Is that correct?”

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Congress is going to receive the President's FY27 budget request this Friday (April 3rd), so I suspect once their plans become public we will have a much better understanding of what the "ideal" future fleet (surface, subsurface, support, logistics, fighter, bomber, etc) looks like.

A $1.5 trillion budget would completely change future fleet structure (for every branch) and as you pointed out the document from December doesn't seem to reflect that.

Given how disorganized and incompetent this administration is though, I honestly am not sure what to expect... Then you have to actually consider the reality of Congress funding a near ~50% increase in defense spending.

 

[AlexYe]

West PAC while waiting for F-47.

Well about that...

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maximum enlistment age to 42

they also gave waivers to having marijuana/drug charges, as in people with those records can enlist too now.

 

[Kalec]

IMHO this is the perfect time to review at the narrative our “missile experts” have concocted that “Iran's missiles CEP are so inaccurate that they failed to deter the Americans from war.” with comparison to PrSM

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It has now been confirmed that PrSM was used to attack the IRGC facility in Lamerd on the 1st day of war, but for some reason it missed the target by nearly 300 meters.

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FYI the same expert lol'ed when PLARF missed target by 100m with probably old DF-21 or DF-26 back two years ago and now PrSM, a guided rocket with INS/GPS missed the target by 300m and another one missed the target by at least 100m to hit the sport hall.



Furthermore we need to take into account that PrSM was designed to have smaller warhead than ATACMS to achieve greater range meanwhile reducing the size of missile and cost.

In4 there would be a counter point that "It could be one or two misses for hundreds of test," yes US is estimated to used 320 PrSM/ATACMs in the first 16 days of war, according to RUSI. But it is also notable that China also did at least 135 ballistic missile tests back in 2021 and the number will be only bigger onward.

Sources:

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[another505]

IMHO this is the perfect time to review at the narrative our “missile experts” have concocted that “Iran's missiles CEP are so inaccurate that they failed to deter the Americans from war.” with comparison to PrSM

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It has now been confirmed that PrSM was used to attack the IRGC facility in Lamerd on the 1st day of war, but for some reason it missed the target by nearly 300 meters.

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FYI the same expert lol'ed when PLARF missed target by 100m with probably old DF-21 or DF-26 back two years ago and now PrSM, a guided rocket with INS/GPS missed the target by 300m and another one missed the target by at least 100m to hit the sport hall.

View attachment 172665

Furthermore we need to take into account that PrSM was designed to have smaller warhead than ATACMS to achieve greater range meanwhile reducing the size of missile and cost.

In4 there would be a counter point that "It could be one or two misses for hundreds of test," yes US is estimated to used 320 PrSM/ATACMs in the first 16 days of war, according to RUSI. But it is also notable that China also did at least 135 ballistic missile tests back in 2021 and the number will be only bigger onward.

Sources:

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I wonder if that is their intelligence being faulty again like the old military facility transforming into a school almost a decade ago.

 

[pokepara]

I wonder if that is their intelligence being faulty again like the old military facility transforming into a school almost a decade ago.

Yeah, I think this is a result of using OSINT garbage as an input to a database of targets and possibly AI to select it.

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An example of intel source that claim to be neutral, but is in reality an Israel/US army mouthpiece. He designated the school targeted as an IRGC facility, based on zero evidence but a tag on a dodgy website made by people like him. Dozens of children died, and these people actively run cover for those who commited this crime.

 

[Maikeru]

Short thread doing damage assessment on Gerald Ford:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2038669637907321175

 

[sheogorath]

Anyone has some spare change to buy some seekret dokumentz?. Promise not to post them in the WarThunder forums.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2039626088226140169

 

[SlothmanAllen]

So apparently the FY27 budget request will be $1.5 trillion (as previously reported) with $1.15 trillion in the base budget and $350 billion coming through reconciliation.

The details are still rough, but apparently they will be asking for 18 "battle force" (destroyers, frigates, subs) ships and 16 "non-battle force" (support ships like dry cargo) ships to the tune of $65.8 billion dollars. From what I can tell, the enacted FY26 shipbuilding budget was $29 billion (not sure if this includes reconciliation funds) which would indicate a 2.2x increase in the shipbuilding budget.

They apparently also plan to ask for 85 F-35's (38 F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variants, 10 F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing jets, and 37 F-35C carrier variant planes) though there is no mention of F-15 or F-16 purchases as of yet (would be kind of strange given the large increase the Air Force would be getting). The F-35 order is going from 43 in FY26 to the proposed 85 in FY27. Most of those seem to be directed to the Navy.

We should find out some more concreate details tomorrow and then have the full picture of April 21st when the budget in full is released.

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[valysre]

From what I can tell, the enacted FY26 shipbuilding budget was $29 billion (not sure if this includes reconciliation funds) which would indicate a 2.2x increase in the shipbuilding budget.

How does the 2.2x increase help when capacity cannot increase by commensurate 2.2x? Bit weird. Will these be long-term orders to ensure a stable skilled labor base in the shipyards?

 

[SlothmanAllen]

How does the 2.2x increase help when capacity cannot increase by commensurate 2.2x? Bit weird. Will these be long-term orders to ensure a stable skilled labor base in the shipyards?

Good question, and I think you are correct. These Orders will be larger in number and continuous over future years so that they can build up a skilled labour force… or at least that seems to be the plan. If the Increased procurement actually leads to downstream investments and improvements in infrastructure and labour force is another question entirely. I suspect this budget would include subsidies for shipbuilders as well, but we will have to wait to get the full details.