Jura The idiot
General
since 01:10 in the footage inside
Admiral to Congress: Think about the 280-plus ships that didn’t have collisions
US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
- Start date
Admiral to Congress: Think about the 280-plus ships that didn’t have collisions
Brumby
Major
Let me frame it this way at a strategic level as to why the response is so bad and unfortunately Congress gave them a free pass. Imagine having an enquiry with the commander of a SSBN after the accidental launch of a nuclear missile and the defence of the commander is "well it is not so bad - think of the remaining 23 that did not go off". Do you think that will be acceptable? In that business when accidents happen people die.
Jura The idiot
General
Jan 20, 2019
Which construction projects would be affected if Trump uses military money to build a wall?
so
Which construction projects would be affected if Trump uses military money to build a wall?
Jura The idiot
General
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Iron man was always way over hyped.
I mean his get up is star trek level tech.
These programs usually hit a point where they break up into smaller tech groups.
Some of the tech will continue to be worked on and refined the story even said so.
But this one really started getting ambitious turning into a super suit.
Rather than KISS and working on just the Exoskeleton and body armor it became a catch all program.
Upgraded armor, Micro climate vests, fit bit, systems like tracking point.
Note no flight capacity mentioned... or wasn't but I am sure @Jura would love it if one was so... This ones one's for you. Enjoy.
I mean his get up is star trek level tech.
These programs usually hit a point where they break up into smaller tech groups.
Some of the tech will continue to be worked on and refined the story even said so.
But this one really started getting ambitious turning into a super suit.
Rather than KISS and working on just the Exoskeleton and body armor it became a catch all program.
elements of these are nearly ready to go.
Upgraded armor, Micro climate vests, fit bit, systems like tracking point.
These demand more time and are in the catch all group.
with these continuing to be worked on for exoskelitons.
Note no flight capacity mentioned... or wasn't but I am sure @Jura would love it if one was so... This ones one's for you. Enjoy.
Jura The idiot
General
yeah "... has yielded a tremendous volume of technical knowledge that may bolster ..." LOL
Jura The idiot
General
Brumby
Major
There had been a separate subject on my mind but the JSTAR program appears to be converging into a central theme that I had been trying to put my thoughts around without much progress until now where I can see some clarity. Essentially the major challenge for the JSTAR recap is that even if the USAF did proceed with it, the end point is still unsatisfactory because the JSTAR planes cannot operate safely inside a contested or denied airspace. Separately I was debating in my mind how the USAF was planning to address a key weakness with the F-35 as an ISR asset in attempting to link its real time data stream back to the supporting assets like the JSTAR/C2. The upshot is that unless the valuable real time information that the F-35 sensor fusion were collecting is able to get back to C2, there is no common operating picture across the whole battlespace for purposes of centrally directing, vectoring and tasking resources. MADL is a low power directional high frequency waveform which delivers the LPI/LPD properties but for the same reason has limited distance and clearly is line of sight (LOS) only. How limited is the distance is classified but speculation is between 25 nm to 100 nm. I am confident of the former minimum range because I have seen corroborated evidence that a multi F-35 sensor formation trains as a team with the former order of magnitude distance apart. Nevertheless the practical capacity to transmit long distance using MADL is highly questionable even if operating by chain delivery. What is needed is a more viable communications relay node that is able to operate in denied environment. The question then is if the JSTAR cannot fulfill that role what purpose will it serve (even after recap) and what assets can fulfil that role. I believe these are some of the problems for the "architect" to solve in developing a communication wide area network with the appropriate system of system assets to address these issues.
I have some thoughts on the candidates for the communication relay node. First up is using the B-2 which apparently is MADL capable. I am speculating here that the MADL distance can be boosted using some kind of booster but because of weight or size is best housed inside a B-2 rather than a F-35. The next candidate is in using the RQ-180 whose existence has never been confirmed. The third candidate is the B-21 and the speculation is that the USAF will build it as a high attitude bomber that can operate up to 60,000 feet and therefore the LOS issue is diminished at that height. The final candidate is in using the U-2S and there is a story out there that a WAN has been tested to-date using an "Einstein Box".
Jura The idiot
General
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Ironically one of the forerunner programs to JSTARS, the Tacit Blue aka the Whale aka the Alien School bus was built with that logic in mind circa the late 1970s early to mid 1980s.
But simply rolling this out of the Museum and starting production would not solve the issues at heart of the matter. JSTARS isn't the only platform this is happening to either, The AWACS and tanker fleet similarly is an Achilles heel here.
They support modern air to air operations yet knocking them out is comparatively easy. JSTARS, AEW and Tanker fleets are built on transport hulls to save money, and take advantage of the range and space aboard whether a Boeing Airliner or a Big military high wing airlifter. These are huge radar returns even before adding the mission equipment.
Naval versions would be smaller but lack the legs of there Air force brethren but still fall in the same trouble spot.
As long as an E2 is operating over the carrier well it's okay after all there is a bigger target that is far more critical below, But if you try to forward direct it. It's a dead duck.
Additionally part of the issues for AEW and JSTARS is that really they were operating not just in an flying kick me sign but they operated based on the model of being the flying command post. Information made them not just the relay but the brains of the operations.
Need an air strike call the AEW need to know where a tank regiment is call the JSTARS. Might as well have moved the generals office aboard.
Which is part of the worry here that with the current birds we might as well paint bull's eyes on the hull.
Because if you want to be the Opfor to a modern air force and win. Down the AEW, JSTARS and Tankers.
F22 And F35 have been called mini Awacs, and there is a reason for that. They have to be. As they were intended to be operating deep behind enemy airspace they couldn't rely on a E3. F35 with it's strike role farther needed to be a mini JSTARS. Able to not just identity it's targets but pass that back up the chain however then comes that issue of how to do that in a heavily contested airspace.
However MADL and F35 are not the only asset here.
You need a "whole picture"
I suspect that what the architect will produce is not a network but two. One LO for behind the lines the other for in secure space.
Part of that will mean moving sensors more and more across the air fleets. F35 is in the three fast mover forces of the US the USAF, USN and USMC.
The three arms likely to be operating in destroying enemy airspace denial. Yet it shouldn't be limited to this alone. Even back as the USAF had Tacit Blue the same radar system Pave Mover was being flown on US Army Blackhawk prototypes. YEH-60B SOTAS Stand-Off Target Acquisition System was a modified Blackhawk helicopter with a Pave Mover radar under the fuselage and a larger retractable radar. That program obviously folded but choppers like the OH58D had some arms of the same idea as did the AH64D Longbow. The cancelled yet just as ambitious RAH66 Comanche had a sensor suit, more primitive that F35 But with similar concepts. Distributed optics and sensors over the hull a radar system and the ability to hand off up the channel.
Even after the termination of Tacit Blue and Comanche elements of there concepts have progressed. FVL makers have talked about adding "F35 technology" to there rotary wing platforms. The Rq170 is said to have started out as an evolution of Dark Star which was an attempt to take the idea of the Tacit Blue program and move it to the unmanned.the Tier 3- was a LO Black counterpart to the Global Hawk unit it was canceled. Then came Polecat and then the Rq170 was outed.
U2 can't penitrate air denial airspace most of what it does today is lower risk ISR, the Global Hawk originally meant to replace the Dragon lady doesn't penitrate either. In missions where that is needed reports are of RQ170 And RQ180 perhaps some other black drone.
At the heart of The concept that built the Tacit Blue was the data link. The Battlefield Surveillance Aircraft-Experimental (BSAX) demonstrator never had the room for the kind of operators and work stations of a E8 or even E2. The data was to be "beamed" back to a command post. By line of sight data links and ground forces. Much like F35's MALD.
This would be "tethered" to a ground station like a Navy ship or ground station or perhaps an aircraft that would take that and beam it to a satellite to be beamed to a mission command.
RQ180 could be that or it could be the successor of RQ170 or a "black" Global Hawk.
It's estimated to be large. 40 meters wing span roughly the same as a Global hawk the Tacit Blue was only 15 meters.