US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Jura said:

inside
Congress Takes 1st Step in Forcing Marines to Make Boot Camp Coed

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:
"Fully integrating women is not only the right thing to do, it makes our military stronger," she said.

so I was curious exactly who's "she"; she's

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

I have a bit of personal experience here.
Paris Island SC and San Diego Cal are the two boot camps for the Marines. ...

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Jura said:

quote of the day comes from inside of
HASC Leaders Want Navy to Explain Carrier Early Retirement, Pentagon OCO Request

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:
“We’ve gotten to the point where the OCO was always a little bit fuzzy in terms of using it to fund things that might not necessarily have bene part of the overseas contingency operations, but now they’ve eliminated any pretense. They’ve actually divided up the OCO into real OCO and then base OCO,” Smith said about the Pentagon’s budget proposal. “I don’t know who coined this term, but I love that person, it’s FOCO – it’s fake OCO and I think we ought to write that into the budget.”

(the context is the Pentagon now attempts to split 174b OCO ("overseas contingency operations" fund) like this:
66b for actually fighting wars,
94b to work around the sequester, plus LOL kinda for Trump's wall)

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Jura said:

once they reopen
Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
I'm going to post there
The US Wants to Sell Taiwan the Wrong Weapons

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...

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Jura said:

Jun 26, 2017 and Marine Corps Declares Initial Operational Capability on G/ATOR Radar System

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The Marine Corps awarded Northrop Grumman a $958 million contract for an advanced radar system that will aid in air defense.

The system, the Gallium Nitride-based (GaN) AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar known as G/ATOR, is a multi-mission radar that provides real time, 360-degree situational awareness to identify and track missiles, manned and unmanned aircraft vehicles, rockets, mortars, and artillery fire.

The Corps first received the system in July 2018. This contract will provide an additional 30 units.

“G/ATOR is a crucial capability that protects our warfighters and defends against today’s threat environment and the threat environment of the future,” Christine Harbison, vice president, land and avionics C4ISR, Northrop Grumman, said in a press release. “We are excited to reach the full-rate production decision and continue providing advanced multi-mission functionality that meets our customer’s mission needs, protects the warfighter in a rapidly changing threat environment, and has significant margin for capability growth.”

The G/ATOR is expected to eliminate five systems, which will in turn reduce training, logistics and maintenance costs.

The need for this system stems from the shift in necessary air defense as

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.

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has unveiled on the eve of the Paris Air Show a new vision for a future scramjet-powered hypersonic missile.

The concept image released on Raytheon’s website reveals a waverider-like missile design powered by a relatively compact booster stage.

The image provides significantly more detail about Raytheon’s secretive hypersonic technology pursuits, which also include a previously released boost-glide design concept and several ideas for counter-hypersonic missile defense systems. Unlike previous acknowledged projects, the new image appears to be Raytheon’s first air-breathing concept image. The weapon concept shows no obvious air inlets, but it’s common for manufacturers to mask that sensitive technology.

Raytheon identifies the concept as a scramjet on the company’s website.

“With engines built on a technology called a scramjet, the system uses a booster to reach cruising speeds,” Raytheon explains. “The missiles fly at sustained speeds above Mach 5 at certain altitudes in order to ensure the scramjet engine functions optimally.”

The only disclosed weaponized scramjet project by the U.S. military is the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC), which is funded by the

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(DARPA).

Raytheon also is involved in the DARPA Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) program, which is developing and testing advanced hypersonic glide vehicles with a highly efficient aerodynamic shape. The TBG is intended to be a risk-reduction effort for a follow-on operational missile in development by the U.S. Air Force called the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW).

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Jura said:

since it happened again, I would've called the FBI to look into a possibility of sabotage, they would've quickly identified the individual(s) who had littered the aircraft, I guess, to see if it's just idiot(s), or got paid or motivated to do this

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The US Air Force (USAF) continues to find foreign object debris (FOD) inside the Boeing KC-46A Pegasus in-flight refuelling tanker, including loose material found this week, and it expects to discover objects for the foreseeable future.

FOD found inside new KC-46As delivered to the USAF is a result of cultural problems, said Will Roper, USAF assistant secretary of the air force for acquisition, technology and logistics, at the show. The service is finding tools, rubbish and left-over parts such as loose nuts during inspections, he said.

“It’s a cultural issue,” says Roper. “We are having those cultural dialogues with Boeing. This is not something you fix by sending out a memo, and then there’s no foreign object debris in the airplanes.”

The problem of FOD within the KC-46A is not likely to be fixed soon, he adds.

“Every plane that’s on the line today we expect to have foreign object debris. We expect the same lapse in quality assurance [and] attention in detail with every airplane that is currently on the floor,” said Roper. “As the line moves we want to see the point at which FOD changes, and if the amount changes. If it does then it’s telling us that the quality assurance improvement processes are starting to work. If it doesn’t then it’s going to tell us something very different.”

As a result of additional inspections, the USAF is accepting aircraft at a pace of about one per month – less than the three per month that was planned. Boeing had planned to deliver 36 aircraft to the USAF in 2019, but thus far has delivered just 11 jets, said Roper.

“It’s slowing down deliveries,” said Roper. “We are not going to be pushing for a faster delivery schedule. In a way, that would put the rigour of inspection at risk.”

Despite being slowed down by additional inspections, Boeing believes it can make up ground in the second half of 2019.

“Boeing is focused on providing quality KC-46 aircraft to our air force customer, and remain committed to our goal of 36 deliveries by the end of the year,” the company says.

The USAF believes that Boeing’s quality assurance policies are sound, but says the company is not following its own processes. The service wants to stop FOD from being left behind at all, instead of finding it at the end of the production line.

“We are very happy with the rigour of the inspections that Boeing, the [Defense Contract Management Agency] and the air force do,” says Roper. “They each do inspections. They go through the airplane from tip to tail. If any foreign object debris is found the inspection starts again. That continues until the airplane is clean.”

Boeing has expressed regret to the service, says Matthew Donovan, acting secretary of the USAF.

“I’ve had conversations with senior Boeing leadership and they characterise it as embarrassing,” he says. “They admit that they have some kind of cultural issue.”

For its part, Boeing acknowledges problems.

"The debris and the tools that were left on the KC-46 at the time of its delivery were unacceptable – unacceptable in any form. We took swift decisive action, and we are using this opportunity as our rallying cry to ensure we enhance our tool and FOD control process,” said Leanne Caret, chief executive officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, at a separate press conference at the show.

“I personally apologised to our customers, and have given my personal assurances that this will not happen again."

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