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Some dull news coming out from the US budget cuts from AFM April issue 2013 page 7

Total of 4 carrier air wings (CVW) are due to be axed in the next year they are

CVW-2 part of USS Ronald Reagans CVN-76
CVW-7 part of USS Dwight D.Eisenhower CVN-69
CVW-9 part of USS John C Stennis CVN-74
And CVW-17 pary of USS Carl Vinson CVN-70

But it doesn't end there, USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN-71 along with CVW-1 and USS Nimitz CVN-68 with CVW-11 are to be reduced in standing to minimum readiness

It means that leaves only 4 fully operational carrier strike groups CVN-72, CVN-73, CVN-75 and CVN-77 to cover all worlds operations

Top brass in the Navy have said that getting all 6 carriers operational to full capacity again will cost 3 times as much as keeping them running

How could they do that!

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The Navy will have money to buy 11 more F/A-18E/F Hornets than planned, one more Arleigh Burke-class destroyer than planned, start advance procurement for an additional Virginia-class submarine and an amphibious transport dock and more during the remainder of the fiscal year, thanks to the continuing resolution bill Congress passed last week that provided new spending levels for the Defense Department.

The Navy, though still hit with across-the-board sequestration cuts, came out a winner in the CR bill. The sea service received almost $42 billion for operations and maintenance, $44 billion for procurement and almost $17 billion for research, development, test and evaluation — all slightly higher than what was requested in the president’s fiscal year 2013 budget.

Among the big gains are $1billion dollars to procure a second destroyer in FY-13, which Navy officials testified to Congress last year would essentially be paid for by the savings generated by signing a multiyear contract with the shipbuilders and allowing industry to continue building at a two-a-year pace. For similar reasons, more than $777 million was added for advance procurement of an additional Virginia-class attack submarine, which will also bring that program to a build plan of two a year. Both the submarine and destroyer programs are about to enter into multiyear contracts, and this spending bill allows them to include 10 boats each.

The Navy also gained $263 million for advance procurement for an additional LPD-17-class amphib beyond what the service had planned on buying. Congress added about $38 million to push two more Landing Craft Air Cushion surface connectors through a service life extension program this fiscal year, along with $150 million to the ship depot maintenance account to pay for repairs on the submarine Miami (SSN-755), which was badly damaged by an arsonist last year. Congress took out $12 million in the ship activations and deactivations account to keep cruisers in the fleet that were set for early decommissioning in an attempt to save money the Navy says is needed to fund maintenance on other surface combatants. Congressmen involved in Navy shipbuilding said on March 21, just before the vote to pass the CR bill, that they fared much better than other industries did as a result of all the recent budget conflicts that led to the CR.

“I think we’ve survived a lot more of the cuts than a lot of other caucuses that are meeting around the next couple days,” Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), whose district includes the Newport News Shipbuilding yard, said during a Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus breakfast. “Sequestration is, again, not something we’re out of the woods yet with the CR passage today, but nonetheless, if you look at the challenges the Navy faced, it really was the lack of a [spending bill] this year,” Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) said at the same event. “I’m really pleased, whether it was DDG progress we made or the Virginia class, the fact is it’s quite extraordinary in terms of what we’re going to be voting on this morning.” The bill the House passed that same morning, which the Senate passed on March 20, also includes gains for Navy aviation. Congress added $130 million to buy two additional KC-130J aerial refueling and cargo planes, as well as $605 million for 11 additional F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets in the multiyear contract and $45 million for advance procurement for 15 additional EA-18G Growler electronic warfare planes. And lawmakers added $71 million to replace a V-22 Osprey lost in operations and about $80 million to replace UH-1Y/AH-1Z helicopters lost in operations. $79 million was added for one C-40 cargo and passenger jet to mitigate a shortfall in the Navy Reserve.

Congress granted about $39 million less than requested for fleet air training due to “inadequate budget justification,” and it added $65 million to the Marine Corps’ operational forces funding to address a shortfall in unit deployment program funding.

The Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services received more than $20 million.

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bd popeye said:

Not.. those were just plans for sequestration...read below. we will have to see what the true cuts are in the few next weeks.

This is great news for the US Navy..we can pull the knife out now.

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In addition work has not started on USS Abraham Lincoln for her refuelling complex, And will not start until budget allocations are made available, a future 11 USN vessels are also frozen for overhaul

So the cuts have already started to effect operations, This now has a ripple effect on rest of carrier operations, the knock on effect is the RCOH of USS Georage Washington and deactiviation of USS Enterprise

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In my opinion these reckless cuts which will make 0% to the overall deficit, Politicans are being very irresponsible, And the administration is basically cutting jobs for average skilled Americans, all I can say is i hope US leaders do not follow UK policies of cutting defence budget so much so that it compromises the national defence

A country never comes out of a recession by making cuts, new money has to be found, cutting defence is not a solution never has been

USN should maintain 11 carrier fleet, a surge of 8 at any one time....

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Marines Plan Teams for Crisis Response
WSJ

WASHINGTON—The U.S. military is making plans to place Marine Corps special-operations teams aboard Navy ships in the Middle East and elsewhere, to serve as a rapid-reaction force that could respond to embassy attacks, hostage standoffs and other crises.

The move follows fierce criticism of the U.S. handling of the September attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, when no American military force was close enough to intervene and four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, were killed.

In the wake of the attack, the military has examined how to improve its rapid-response forces. Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marines, argues that adding special-operations teams of 14 Marines to ships carrying larger Marine Expeditionary Units would markedly improve the ability to respond to various emergencies.

"When these crises happen, they happen instantaneously, overnight. If you are going to respond, you don't have time to gather forces back in the U.S., load them on C-17s, fly them someplace and land them on some country's airfield that might not want you on their ground," Gen. Amos said.

The Marine Corps and Special Operations Command will participate in a war game in April designed to help military leaders make a final decision whether they should place the special-operations teams alongside Marine units on three-ship Navy Amphibious Ready Groups. No cost figures for putting them aboard the ships are available.

The Marines maintain seven 2,200-troop expeditionary units, with two or three deployed at a time. Currently, one is deployed in the Mediterranean Sea; another operates in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Aden; and another is permanently forward-deployed in the Pacific based at Okinawa, Japan.

An expeditionary unit has a battalion-size ground force and fighter planes, as well as attack and transport helicopters. Such a unit typically operates from an amphibious assault ship with a large deck, as well as from two smaller amphibious ships.

The existence of rapid-response teams might have enabled the military to mount a long-range rescue attempt when militants stormed the U.S. consulate and a nearby Central Intelligence Agency annex in Benghazi. At the time, however, the nearest Marine unit was hundreds of miles away in the Gulf of Aden, a distant reach, even if special-operations teams had been on board at the time.


In congressional testimony, military leaders have said there were no U.S. commando teams in the region that could have reached Benghazi in time to counter the assault.

The unit in the Gulf of Aden had speedy MV-22 tilt-rotor Ospreys, a transport aircraft that can be refueled in midflight. Marines have said the MV-22 has drastically improved their ability to conduct rescues. In March 2011, the 26th MEU, deployed in the Mediterranean, used MV-22s to rescue a pilot near Benghazi, whose plane had crashed during fighting in Libya.

The combination of MV-22s and Marine special-operations teams would make for a formidable force, possibly even faster than rapid-reaction forces in place at regional U.S. military commands around the world, military officials said.

"What if it is a takedown of a pirate ship? What if it is a rescue of American personnel in a really thorny situation?" Gen. Amos said. "Wouldn't it be nice to have that capability on amphibious ships?"


The military used to have Navy SEAL teams deployed as part of Marine units and Navy amphibious groups. But the demands of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for special-operations teams forced their redeployment. Neither the Navy nor Marine Corps has been able to deploy the teams as part of expeditionary units in recent years.

The Marines created their own special-operations teams seven years ago, as part of an effort by the Pentagon to expand the high-demand units during the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The Marines have periodically reviewed whether to dismantle their special-operations teams, examining whether the specialty was duplicative of the SEALs or Army Special Forces. But Gen. Amos said he decided to preserve the Marine commandos and protect them from any cutbacks as the Corps shrinks its overall size.

The Marines maintain another-rapid reaction force, the Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Teams, or FAST platoons, to reinforce embassies and protect classified equipment. Those units don't undergo the same lengthy training as special-operations forces.

Under the Marines' current proposal, the special-operations commandos would travel aboard Navy ships with the rest of the expeditionary unit. But the elite teams wouldn't be under the control of the MEU commander. Instead, regional special-operations commanders will oversee the Marine commandos.

Even if the military ultimately decides not to pursue the routine presence of ship-based special-operations teams, Marine officials said there would be more unconventional forces embedded with MEUs in the future.

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Unmanned squadrons concern state officials
By Brian Everstine - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Mar 27, 2013 17:02:19 EDT
A move to shift unmanned aircraft squadrons to the Air National Guard as traditional aircraft squadrons are decommissioned has some governors and state adjutants general worried, the top Air Guard official said.

“Some states are very concerned about not having a manned mission and only going to an unmanned mission,” said Lt. Gen. Stanley Clarke, the new director of the Air National Guard, during a House Appropriations committee hearing March 21.

The Air National Guard flies MQ-1B Predator and MQ-9 Reaper missions in places such as North Dakota, Texas, California, New York and Arizona. The fiscal 2014 budget proposal is expected to include realigning more wings to become unmanned, said John Goheen, spokesman with the National Guard Association of the United States.

Air Force officials have said their goal is to have one flying mission in every state, and leaders would like to keep the traditional aircraft, such as F-16s or C-130s, in their skies.

“It’s a different kind of mission; one can argue it’s a flying mission, but for some in the Air Guard it’s not quite the same,” Goheen said.

State leaders are using increased access through the Council of Governors, a bipartisan group of 10 state leaders, and the congressionally mandated National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force to provide more input on the budget. Clarke said fiscal 2014 plans, expected to be released April 8, are being communicated to state leaders.

Last year, the Air Force budget proposal came under intense scrutiny from Congress when state leaders said they had little or no input into the plan. Leaders of the active, Guard and Reserve forces have vowed to work together to avoid a repeat of the budget fiasco, which temporarily delayed Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh’s confirmation.

“We’re in the process of … putting our implementation plans to the states and the adjutant generals and the governors so that they can take a look at it so they’ll know how we’re going to do this proposal,” Clarke said.

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Thousands flock to Blue Angels practice session
By Melissa Nelson-Gabriel - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 27, 2013 15:54:03 EDT
PENSACOLA NAVAL AIR STATION, Fla. — Nearly 8,000 fans packed a morning practice session of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.

Many said Wednesday they are worried it could be the last time for a while they will get to watch the elite flight demonstration team.

Federal budget cuts could end the team’s 2013 season before it really starts. The team flew at an air show in Key West earlier this month, but most of the shows scheduled through mid-June have been cancelled because of uncertainty about the team’s finances.

The team hasn’t scheduled any more of its popular weekday practice sessions beyond March. Thousands of fans usually gather outside the National Museum of Naval Aviation each Tuesday, Wednesday and sometimes Thursday mornings during the March through October season to watch the team perform routine maneuvers.

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

A-stan and Iraq drained the effectiveness of American Responce capibilitys by soaking up the Rescources normally used to react to situations. SEAL and DELTA force teams were needed in those two AOR's. Now American Leadership is moving back too preperatory ops and one of those mission types is Marine Expeditionary Units Having Spec ops already in the AOR or capible of moving in rappidly would be a major capibility returned to SOCOM and US Forces.


UAV's have a role no Doubt SAR, Target observation, Interdiction of border penitration, And limited Strikes Even Denied territory ops. But mostly that is either strike or intel gathering Air guard traditionaly is Air superiority over US territiry. A mix is needed of manned Multirole Fighter and strike craft as well as UAV types It seems like so many are looking too try and force just one type a move that would cause more problems then it ever could solve.

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Air Force cancels Red Flag-Alaska training
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 27, 2013 19:26:48 EDT
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Air Force is canceling its flight training exercise scheduled for April in Alaska.

An announcement from Pacific Air Forces says Red Flag-Alaska is being set aside because of budgetary concerns.

The training exercise traditionally takes place at Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, and use the Joint Pacific Alaskan Range Complex for training.

Next month’s training was to have included aircraft and crews from Canada and the United Kingdom. The Air Force says they will still offer use of the range to them.

Pacific Air Forces officials at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickman in Hawaii say they are trying to reduce the effect of sequestration on other training exercises.

Spokeswoman Capt. Kim Bender says planning continues for another Red Flag training exercise in Alaska in August.

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Anti-drone protesters arrested at Creech AFB
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 27, 2013 20:14:30 EDT
INDIAN SPRINGS, Nev. — Officials say eight people were arrested on disturbing the peace charges during a demonstration outside an Air Force base home to Predator and Reaper remote-controlled drone aircraft.

Nevada Desert Experience coordinator Jim Haber says the Wednesday protest at Creech Air Force Base was part of an annual peace walk.

It started in Las Vegas and ends this week in Mercury, at the gate of a former federal nuclear proving ground now called the Nevada National Security Site.

Haber says the five men and three women arrested were from California, New York, Wisconsin and Nevada. None was injured.

Las Vegas police Officer Laura Meltzer says they’re accused of failing to disperse when ordered.

Each was driven 45 miles to Las Vegas, given summonses with a June court date and released.

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Afghan villagers flee homes, blame U.S. drones
By Kathy Gannon - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Mar 28, 2013 9:38:27 EDT
KHALIS FAMILY VILLAGE, Afghanistan — Barely able to walk even with a cane, Ghulam Rasool says he padlocked his front door, handed over the keys and his three cows to a neighbor and fled his mountain home in the middle of the night to escape relentless airstrikes from U.S. drones targeting militants in this remote corner of Afghanistan.

Rasool and other Afghan villagers have their own name for Predator drones. They call them benghai, which in the Pashto language means the “buzzing of flies.” When they explain the noise, they scrunch their faces and try to make a sound that resembles an army of flies.

“They are evil things that fly so high you don’t see them but all the time you hear them,” said Rasool, whose body is stooped and shrunken with age and his voice barely louder than a whisper. “Night and day we hear this sound, and then the bombardment starts.”

The U.S. military is increasingly relying on drone strikes inside Afghanistan, where the number of weapons fired from unmanned aerial aircraft soared from 294 in 2011 to 506 last year. With international combat forces set to withdraw by the end of next year, such attacks are now used more for targeted killings and less for supporting ground troops.

It’s unclear whether Predator drone strikes will continue after 2014 in Afghanistan, where the government has complained bitterly about civilian casualties. The strikes sometimes accidentally kill civilians while forcing others to abandon their hometowns in fear, feeding widespread anti-American sentiment.

The Associated Press — in a rare on-the-ground look unaccompanied by military or security — visited two Afghan villages in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan to talk to residents who reported that they had been affected by drone strikes.

In one village, Afghans disputed NATO’s contention that five men killed in a particular drone strike were militants. In the other, a school that was leveled in a nighttime airstrike targeting Taliban fighters hiding inside has yet to be rebuilt.

“These foreigners started the problem,” Rasool said of international troops. “They have their own country. They should leave.”

From the U.S. perspective, the overall drone program has been a success.

While the Pentagon operates the drones in Afghanistan, the CIA for nearly a decade has used drones to target militants, including Afghans, in Pakistan’s border regions. CIA drones have killed al-Qaida No. 2 Abu Yahya al-Libi and other leading extremists.

Still, criticism of the use of drones for targeted killings around the world has been mounting in recent months. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism and Human Rights has launched an investigation into their effect on civilians.

Rasool said his decision to leave his home in Hisarak district came nearly a month ago after a particularly blistering air assault killed five people in the neighboring village of Meya Saheeb.

The U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, confirmed an airstrike on Feb. 24 at Meya Saheeb, but as a matter of policy would neither confirm nor deny that drones were used.

Rasool said that he, his son, half a dozen grandchildren, and two other families crammed into the back of a cart pulled by a tractor. They drove throughout the day until they found a house in Khalis Family Village, named after anti-communist rebel leader Maulvi Yunus Khalis, who had close ties to al-Qaida.

The village is not far from the Tora Bora mountain range where in 2001 the U.S.-led coalition mounted its largest operation of the war to flush out al-Qaida and Taliban warriors.

“Nobody ever comes here. It’s a little dangerous sometimes because of the Taliban,” said Zarullah Khan, a neighbor of Rasool’s.

But the historic significance of his newfound refuge was lost on Rasool.

“Who’s Khalis? We stopped when we found a house for rent,” he said, grumbling at the monthly $200 bill shared among the three families packed into the high-walled compound where he spoke with the AP.

Standing nearby, Rasool’s 12-year-old grandson, Ahmed Shah, recalled the attack in Meya Saheeb. The earth shook for what seemed like hours, and the next morning his friends told him there were bodies in the nearby village. A little afraid, but more curious, he walked the short distance to Meya Saheed.

“I wanted to see the dead bodies,” he said. And he did — three bodies, all middle-aged men.

ISAF reported five militants were killed, but Rasool claimed they were businessmen. One of the dead had a carpet shop in the village, he said.

Disputes over the identities of those killed have been a hallmark of the 12-year war.

In Pakistan, an AP investigation last year found that drone strikes were killing fewer civilians than many in that country were led to believe, and that many of the dead were combatants.

In Afghanistan, the U.N. has reported that five drone strikes in 2012 resulted in civilian casualties, with 16 civilians killed and three wounded. It reported just one incident in which civilians were killed the previous year.

At the other end of the province from Meya Saheeb and Khalis Family Village lies the village of Budyali. To get there, one must drive along a long, two-lane highway often booby-trapped by militants, before turning off onto a narrow, dusty track and finally crossing a rock-strewn riverbed.

A Budyali resident, Hayat Gul, says the sound of “benghai” is commonplace in the village. He says he was wounded nearly two years ago in a Taliban firefight with Afghan security forces at a nearby school that led to an airstrike.

Tucked in the shadow of a hulking mountain crisscrossed with dozens of footpaths, the school now is in ruins.

The early morning strike on the school took place July 17, 2011, hours after the Taliban attacked the district headquarters and the Afghan National Army appealed to its coalition partners for help.

Gul said he and a second guard, 63-year-old Ghulam Ahad, were asleep in the small cement guard house at one end of the school. They woke to the sound of gunfire as more than a dozen Taliban militants scaled the school walls around midnight, chased by Afghan soldiers.

A bullet struck Gul in the shoulder. Frightened and unsure of what to do, Ahad stepped outside the guard house and was killed. Bullet holes still riddle the badly damaged building.

Village elders and the school’s principal, Sayed Habib, said coalition forces responded to the army’s request for help with drones, fighter jets and rockets.

The air assault, which residents say began about 3 a.m. and likely included drone strikes, flattened everything across a vast compound that includes the school. Habib said 13 insurgents were killed.

ISAF confirmed that airstrikes killed insurgents in the Budyali area on that day but would not say what type of airstrikes or provide any other details.

Habib and a local malik or elder, Shah Mohammed Khan, said that in the days leading up to the airstrikes the sound of drones could be heard overhead.

“Everyone knows the sound of the unpiloted planes. Even our children know,” Habib said.

The elders were critical of the U.S. attack. They said they would have preferred that the Afghan soldiers try to negotiate with the Taliban to leave the school and surrender.

Habib and the village elders recalled the attack while sitting in the middle of the devastated school, where debris was still scattered across a vast yard. They pointed toward a blackboard, pockmarked with gaping holes.

“Shamefully they destroyed our school, our books, our library,” said Malik Gul Nawaz, an elder with a gray beard and a pot belly.

Habib said that in an attempt to rebuild the school, a contractor constructed a boundary wall before another Taliban attack. He fled with nearly $400,000 in foreign funds.

The roughly 1,300 students now take classes at a makeshift school made up of tents provided by UNICEF. Gul, who was taken to a U.S. military hospital at Bagram Air Base after the attack and treated for the bullet wound to his left shoulder, is now a watchman at the new school.

He held a small photograph of his dead colleague, Ahad, in his trembling left hand.

“We want to end this war,” Gul said. “Enough people have been killed now. We have to find unity.”

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U.S. swipes at China for hacking allegations
By Anne Flaherty - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 27, 2013 15:49:29 EDT
WASHINGTON — The U.S. has taken its first real swipe at China following accusations that the Beijing government is behind a widespread and systemic hacking campaign targeting U.S. businesses.

Buried in a spending bill signed by President Obama on Tuesday is a provision that effectively bars much of the federal government from buying information technology made by companies linked to the Chinese government.

It’s unclear what impact the legislation will have, or whether it will turn out to be a symbolic gesture. The provision only affects certain non-defense government agency budgets between now and Sept. 30, when the fiscal year ends. It also allows for exceptions if an agency head determines that buying the technology is “in the national interest of the United States.”

Still, the rule could upset U.S. allies whose businesses rely on Chinese manufacturers for parts and pave the way for broader, more permanent changes in how the U.S. government buys technology.

“This is a change of direction,” said Stewart Baker, a former senior official at the Homeland Security Department now with the legal firm Steptoe and Johnson in Washington. “My guess is we’re going to keep going in this direction for a while.”

In March, the U.S. computer security firm Mandiant released details on what it said was an aggressive hacking campaign on American businesses by a Chinese military unit. Since then, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has used high-level meetings with Beijing officials to press the matter. Beijing has denied the allegations.

Congressional leaders have promised to push comprehensive legislation that would make it easier for industry to share threat data with the government. But those efforts have been bogged down amid concerns that too much of U.S. citizens’ private information could end up in the hands of the federal government.

As Congress and privacy advocates debate a way ahead, lawmakers tucked “section 516” into the latest budget resolution, which enables the government to pay for day-to day operations for the rest of the fiscal year. The provision specifically prohibits the Commerce and Justice departments, NASA and the National Science Foundation from buying an information technology system that is “produced, manufactured or assembled” by any entity that is “owned, operated or subsidized” by the People’s Republic of China.

The agencies can only acquire the technology if, in consulting with the FBI, they determine that there is no risk of “cyberespionage or sabotage associated with the acquisition of the system,” according to the legislation.

The move might sound like a no-brainer. If U.S. industry and intelligence officials are right, and China is stealing America’s corporate secrets at a breathtaking pace, why reward Beijing with lucrative U.S. contracts? Furthermore, why install technical equipment that could potentially give China a secret backdoor into federal systems?

But a blanket prohibition on technology made by the Chinese government may be easier said than done. Information systems are often a complicated assembly of parts manufactured by different companies around the globe. And investigating where each part came from, and if that part is made by a company that could have ties to the Chinese government could be difficult.

Depending on how the Obama administration interprets the law, Baker said it could cause problems for the U.S. with the World Trade Organization, whose members include U.S. allies like Germany and Britain that might rely on Chinese technology to build computers or handsets.

But in the end, Baker says it could make the U.S. government safer and wiser.

“We do have to worry about buying equipment from companies that may not have our best interests at heart,” he said.

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Navy cancels five deployments set for April
By Sam Fellman - Staff writer Navy times
Posted : Monday Mar 25, 2013 16:25:47 EDT
The defense secretary officially terminated five upcoming ship deployments last week and ordered one deployed frigate to return home. These ships have been on notice for the past month that their cruises may be canned, but lawmakers — when they passed a military funding plan through September — made it official.

Fleet Forces Command and the Pacific Fleet blamed the actions on automatic spending cuts, known as sequestration. It will strip $4 billion from the Navy’s coffers just this year.

Fleet statements made no mention whether the service will ground as many as four air wings, possibilities that Navy officials disclosed in early March. Meanwhile, three more ship deployments hang in limbo.

The spending bill leaves in place the sequestration cuts, but gives the Pentagon more flexibility on where to cut and also boosts the maintenance and operations money by $10 billion. Those sweeteners were not enough to save these cruises, however:

• The hospital ship Comfort will not conduct its “Continuing Promise 2013” humanitarian mission to Central and South America.

• The rescue and salvage ship Grasp will not deploy to U.S. European command.

• The frigate Kauffman will not deploy to U.S. Southern Command, once scheduled for April 5.

• The frigate Rentz will not deploy to U.S. Southern Command, once slated for April 19.

• The attack submarine Jefferson City will not deploy in April.

The frigate Thach, nearly half-way through its six-month counter-narcotics cruise, has been ordered to return to its homeport, San Diego, in April, PACFLT’s statement said.

The fleets have withheld terminating each deployment as long as possible in case the Navy gets more funding. A question mark hangs over the April deployments for the destroyers Preble and Momsen, as well as the destroyer Shoup’s ongoing deployment, all of which Navy officials have said may be terminated.

“No decisions have been made yet to cancel Preble or Momsen deployments or to have Shoup return early,” said 3rd Fleet spokeswoman Lt. Lenaya Rotklein in an email.

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E-2C Hawkeye makes emergency landing in Norfolk
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Mar 28, 2013 10:02:46 EDT
NORFOLK, Va. — A Navy spokesman says no one was injured when an E-2C Hawkeye made an emergency landing at Norfolk Naval Station.

Naval Air Force Atlantic spokesman Mike Maus told media outlets that the pilot noticed smoke coming from the turboprop aircraft’s right engine shortly after it took off Wednesday from Chambers Field at the naval station. The plane returned to the airfield.

Maus said the plane was heading to Fentress Naval Auxiliary Landing Field in Chesapeake to conduct routine field carrier landing practice.

The aircraft is being examined to determine what caused the smoke.

Four people were on the plane at the time.

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Army nixes airship project
Written by Kirk Moore @KirkMooreAPP
Mar 31
app.com
More than $350 million later, a 300-foot hybrid airship that was tested at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst has been scuttled by the U.S. Army, a casualty of plans to wind down American forces in the conflict, and the military’s mounting budget difficulties.

Now, its British builders want to buy back the airship, which was designed for omniscient battlefield surveillance over Afghanistan.

The Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, or LEMV, has been parked in Hangar 6 on the Lakehurst side of the base since its 90-minute maiden flight last August, its first and only time in New Jersey skies. But with the project far behind schedule, as program engineers worked to master computer software and control issues, and the Army facing difficult budget choices, military spending cuts ultimately claimed the airship.

Civilian airship enthusiasts had high hopes for the Army project, which if it had gone forward could have marked the first time a military airship flew over an active combat theater since Navy blimps from Lakehurst conducted anti-submarine patrols during World War II.

But those observers also sensed the project’s costs and its developmental issues could work against it.

“It was the cost of the first test flight platform, and the war in Afghanistan winding down,” said Rick Zitarosa, historian for the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society.

But delays and overruns had the program in trouble by late last year. In a March 12 speech to defense industry executives meeting in Washington, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called out the LEMV project by name, as an example of projects that senior Department of Defense management and industry contractors should have seen would fail.

“As it turned out, program delays prohibited LEMV from ever leaving New Jersey. So, just last month, it was killed — after the Department sunk $356 million into it,” McCain said, citing what he called a “culture of inefficiency” in the department.

Planned costs for the LEMV program were $279 million through fiscal year 2012, and would have gone to $517 million if fully adopted by the Army. According to the original plan, it would have been been the first of several extreme-endurance surveillance platforms, capable of operating at high altitude beyond the range of most ground weapons for days on end.

The airship has capability to carry people and cargo, but its major mission was the intelligence role — providing an “unblinking eye” over the battlefield, as HAV and Northrop Grumman’s promotional literature described it. The idea was to keep sensor arrays aloft to cover a huge extent of terrain, providing information to commanders on the ground in real time without the delays and gaps of conventional aircraft needing to leave the scene to refuel.

In an October report on Department of Defense airship research, the Government Accountability Office found $1.3 billion in spending across the services during the previous fiscal year, and persistent “technical challenges” to the projects.

For the LEMV, problems with producing fabric for the skin, getting foreign-built parts through customs and software integration and testing were factors in the program falling 10 months behind schedule, the GAO report said.

“Also, LEMV is about 12,000 pounds overweight because components, such as tail fins, exceed weight thresholds,” the report noted. “According to program officials, the increased weight reduces the airship’s estimated on-station endurance at an altitude of 20,000 feet from the required 21 days, to 4 to 5 days.”

Revised plans called for an operating altitude of 16,000 feet, which would restore endurance to 16 days, the report said. But by the last months of 2012, the Army was looking at a $21.3 million shortfall because of the additional engineering and production work.

Unlike a traditional blimp, the LEMV is a combination of lighter-than-air craft and lifting body; the aerodynamic shape of its envelope provides for 40 percent of the ship’s lifting power, according to company literature.

That older airship technology is surviving at Lakehurst.

The Navy’s MZ-3A airship, a modified 178-foot long commercial design from the American Blimp Corp., is based at the Joint Base for several months a year. Since its formal acceptance by the Navy in October 2011, it has provided a relatively inexpensive flying test platform for military equipment.

The MZ-3A program was in danger of a shutdown in spring 2012 when a key research contract ran out, but since then Navy operators have picked up additional clients including Army research groups.

The LEMV may have a second life as well.

The BBC reported that contractor Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd., the British company that built the ship in partnership with U.S. contractor Northrop Grumman, is seeking to buy the LEMV prototype back from the Army. HAV wants to continue testing the ship for other potential customers, Hardy Giesler the company’s business development director, told the British news service.

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Military working cat program underway at 'The Old Guard'
April 1, 2013
By Staff Sgt. Megan Garcia
Army.mil: Inside the Army News

JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. (April 1, 2013) -- The 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), is doing its part to cut down on military spending with the implementation of a new cutting-edge program which will use military working cats to work alongside military police.

Currently, U.S. Army Military Police, or MPs, most often use German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois dogs for narcotics detection, tracking criminals and for taking down criminals, thus reducing the risk of injury to MPs.

"I think it's a great idea," said Sgt. 1st Class Tyler Radmall, platoon sergeant, 947th Military Police [MP] Detachment, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard). "There are so many homeless cats in the Virginia area. Not only will the Army have a more cost-effective working animal, but we will be doing our part in getting them off of the streets and finding them employment."

Officials hope to capitalize on cats' olfactory and hearing prowess. While most people think of dogs as having sharp senses, cats actually have more acute senses.

For example, dogs can hear five times more acutely than humans, and cats about twice as acutely as dogs. Also, a domestic cat's sense of smell is about fourteen times as strong as a human's.

Soldiers around the regiment have been doing their part to support the program by capturing stray cats in their neighborhoods and bringing them into the detachment located on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va. More than 100 cats have been collected since the program started earlier this month.

The cats will have to go through a screening process to determine their "trainability." They will be assessed with regard to how quickly they learn tasks, what motivates them (play versus food), and their sociability. Cats that cannot be motivated to take direction, or that do not get along with humans or other animals, will be ejected from the program.

Cats that fail out of the program will be distributed to no-kill facilities and adoption centers throughout Northern Virginia.

While the program is new, and graduation rate data are not yet available, the MPs setting up the program have high hopes for the success.

"It's better to use these cats because they are a lot quieter, sneakier and quicker than most of our dogs," said Radmall. "They will also be able to get into some of the smaller crawl spaces to sniff out bombs if necessary."

Radmall added this skill will especially help MPs who are deployed. However, he admitted the program has gotten off to a rocky start. Some of the strays collected for the program have "limited human interaction and social skills."

"It has been a rough process," said Radmall. "A lot of our Soldiers were seen at the regimental aid station because they were scratched up pretty badly by the cats."

On the contrary, Radmall said this will be another great advantage of employing the military working cats.

"Cats' claws are razor sharp, so it makes for a good defense mechanism not only for the cat but for their handler as well," said Radmall. "A young, healthy cat can jump over eight feet in a single bound so if an enemy approaches a cat, the cat will be able to jump on him and either disable him, or claw him to death if he fails to stop resisting capture."

Other issues have arose, of course, with integrating the two species. As the program is still in its infancy, funding is not yet available for separate kennels for the cats.

"It's like sibling rivalry," said Radmall. "We've had to break up quite a few fights between the felines and the K9s. You can definitely tell the dogs aren't pleased with the possibility of the cats moving in on their territory."

Radmall continued to say they will keep the dogs currently in the program, but will only accept cats from this point forward.

Radmall is confident that the kinks in the program will be worked out over time despite the issues they have had so far.

"We've already had one cat successfully graduate through the program, and we're looking forward to having many more to follow in his footsteps," said Radmall. "While the other cats in the program might not understand the gravity of his achievement, Gino serves as a role model for them. He exemplifies the Army Values."

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State-of-the-art 3D printers cut costs,
turnaround time
April 1, 2013
By Justin Eimers, CECOM
Engineering Tech Mikael Mead of Tobyhanna Army Depot, Pa., removes a small production run of finished lens
covers from the printing tray of a polyjet 3-D printer. Three-dimensional printers produce parts out of plastic and
other durable materials.
Homepage > News Archives > Article
TOBYHANNA ARMY DEPOT, Pa. (April 1, 2013) --
Engineers and technicians here use a highly innovative,
cutting-edge fabrication process to significantly cut
costs and reduce turnaround time.
The depot's additive manufacturing process uses two,
three-dimensional 3-D printers to produce parts out of
plastic and other durable materials. Unlike traditional
design methods where a part is made from a block of
material and the excess is discarded, additive
manufacturing uses only material necessary for the
part, saving money and minimizing waste.
Electronics Engineer Corey Sheakoski said the benefits and potential of this process
are nearly unlimited.
"Tobyhanna has the ability to make any type of plastic part, as long as we have a 3D
model for it and it fits within a certain set of dimensions," he said. Sheakoski works in
the Production Engineering Directorate's, or PED's, Mission Software Branch.
Recently, a shortage of parts was delaying delivery of Harris radios. The radios
required the installation of small dust caps prior to shipping to the customer. Finding
and getting the part from a vendor could have taken weeks; so instead, Mechanical
Engineer Eugene Haikes designed a 3-D model of the part and the depot printed 600
dust caps in 16 hours.
Mikael Mead, engineering tech in PED's Design and Development Branch, said the
decision to make the part at the depot saved a substantial amount of money and
precious time.
"If the depot wanted to produce the dust caps but didn't have a rubber mold for
them, we could have expected to pay anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 for the
mold," said Mead. "Because Eugene was able to come up with the model, we were
able to produce the caps for only a dollar apiece while trimming days, if not weeks,
off of our anticipated delivery date."
Haikes, who works in PED's Manufacturing Engineering Branch, said the whole4/1/13 State-of-the-art 3D printers cut costs, turnaroundtime| Article| TheUnitedStates Army

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process provides added benefit to both the depot and the customer.
"Some parts can be made through 3-D printing that just cannot be produced by
conventional methods," he said. "Other advantages with this process are that
machine time is not charged to the customer and it can run overnight and during the
weekend."
Tobyhanna has been using additive manufacturing since the arrival of the first 3-D
printer in the fall of 2006. The process begins with a computerized 3-D model that is
programmed into one of two high-tech printers. The machine then builds a part, layer
by layer, based on the model's design.
The depot's first 3-D printer, a fused deposition modeling machine, or FDM, is capable
of making parts out of ABS plastic within a 10 x 10 x 12 in. area. The second machine,
a polyjet printer, was purchased in April 2012, and can make parts out of hundreds
of composite materials within an 8 x 16 x 19 in. area.
The FDM machine produces parts accurate to one one-hundreth of an inch of the
computerized model, while the polyjet printer is accurate to .002 inch. This capability
also allows depot engineers to print parts to use as prototypes and test pieces.
Sheakoski added that the future of additive manufacturing and 3-D printing
technology holds nothing but promise.
"When you look at some of the benefits of 3-D printing -- the cost savings, reduction
in turnaround times, reliability -- it's exciting to think where it can go from here," he
said. "Additive manufacturing is helping the depot cut costs during tough times while
continually supporting the warfighter with high-quality products."
Tobyhanna Army Depot is the Defense Department's largest center for the repair,
overhaul and fabrication of a wide variety of electronics systems and components,
from tactical field radios to the ground terminals for the defense satellite
communications network. Tobyhanna's missions support all branches of the armed
forces.
About 5,100 personnel are employed at Tobyhanna, which is located in the Pocono
Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. Tobyhanna Army Depot is part of the U.S.
Army Communications-Electronics Command. Headquartered at Aberdeen Proving
Ground, Md., the command's mission is to research, develop, acquire, field and
sustain communications, command, control computer, intelligence, electronic warfare
and sensors capabilities for the armed forces.

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Cyber growth may spur jobs amid budget cuts
By Brian Everstine - Staff writer Airforce Times
Posted : Monday Apr 1, 2013 5:38:34 EDT
The Air Force and the Defense Department’s greater cyber community continues to grow, which may mean thousands of new jobs during a time of cutbacks.

The 24th Air Force and its Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance agency are reviewing their cyber structures to find the best way to provide airmen and capability to U.S. Cyber Command, all while the major command is standing up dozens of new cyber teams over the next three years to be on the offensive in the digital realm.

“Right now we do not have enough people,” said Maj. Gen. Earl Matthews, the director of cyberspace operations and chief information officer, at a recent cyber event.

The new cyber teams will add 5,000 people, with about a third of them being Air Force.

Gen. William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, said earlier this year the service is planning to bring in more than 1,000 new positions through fiscal 2016 at a breakdown of 80 percent military and 20 percent civilian.

The Air Force Personnel Center may change questions in the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test to determine an airman’s aptitude in the cyber realm.

Army Gen. Keith Alexander, commander of U.S. Cyber Command, said the command is looking for more than 40 cyber “teams” across all services to address threats in the cyber realm, with 13 teams used by the department solely to defend threats and that would be stationed at Fort Meade, Md.

“This is an offensive team the Defense Department would use to defend the nation if it were attacked in cyberspace,” he said.

Twenty seven of the USCYBERCOM teams would support each of the combatant commands in planning for offensive capabilities and be based at cyber-command headquarters around the world. Another group of teams would be used to defend the military’s networks themselves.

“They are the counter-cyber force,” Alexander said. “I call that offensive because their job is to stop — like a missile coming into the country — their job would be to stop that and provide options to the White House and the president on what more to do. So they’re the folks who would counter any cyber adversary.”

The breakdown will start to take shape with the administration’s fiscal 2014 budget proposal, expected early this month. The plan is to have one-third of the teams operational by September, another third in September 2014 and the last third by September 2015, Alexander said.

The National Guard will be involved in the cyber ramp-up, Alexander said. This summer, the command will hold its second Cyber Guard exercise alongside the National Security Administration at Fort Meade. The Guard will focus on cyber protection and be centered around high-tech areas in the country — including Silicon Valley, Washington state and New England — and work alongside such agencies as U.S. Northern Command, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, Alexander said.

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Doomed Navy ship removed from Philippine reef
By Jim Gomez - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Mar 31, 2013 10:17:06 EDT
MANILA, Philippines — Workers in the southwestern Philippines have removed the last major part of a U.S. Navy minesweeper from a protected coral reef where it ran aground in January, and the damage will be assessed to determine the fine Washington will pay, officials said Sunday.

A crane lifted the 250-ton stern of the dismantled Guardian on Saturday from the reef, where it accidentally got stuck Jan. 17, officials said. The reef, designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural arm, is located in the Tubbataha National Marine Park in the Sulu Sea, about 644 kilometers (400 miles) southwest of Manila.

The doomed ship’s parts will be transported to a Navy facility in Sasebo, Japan, to determine which ones can be reused and which will be junked, Philippine coast guard Commodore Enrico Efren Evangelista said.

Workers were cleaning debris at the site, where American and Filipino experts this week will begin a final assessment of the reef damage, to be paid for by Washington. An initial estimate showed about 4,000 square meters (4,780 square yards) of coral reef was damaged by the ship grounding, according to Tubbataha park superintendent Angelique Songco. She said it was unlikely the estimate would change significantly.

Songco said the fine would be about 24,000 pesos ($600) per square meter, so the U.S. could be facing a bill of more than $2 million.

The fine will go to a fund for the upkeep of the reef, Songco said, adding that Filipino and U.S. scientists will inspect the reef this week to determine the best way to “rehabilitate” the damaged parts. One option is to let the reef heal by itself, which would take a long time but be less complicated. Another option is to carry out some “repairs” to the reef, which would be more costly and complicated, she said.

Songco said her agency did not have plans to pursue charges against U.S. authorities over the incident.

Asked if the Philippine government would press charges against U.S. Navy officials, Philippine Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., a spokesman for President Benigno Aquino III, did not reply directly, but said, “There must be accountability and we will enforce our existing laws.”

The warship’s removal closes an embarrassing episode as Washington reasserts its presence in Asia amid China’s rise. The Navy and the U.S. ambassador to Manila, Harry K. Thomas, have both apologized for the grounding and promised to cooperate with America’s longtime Asian ally.

“As we have stated in the past, we regret this incident and the United States is prepared to pay compensation for the damage to the reef,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement, adding that it was cooperating with a Philippine government investigation of the incident.

A separate U.S. government investigation on the cause of the grounding has not yet been completed, the embassy said.

Aquino has said that the U.S. Navy must explain how the ship got off course, and that the Navy will face fines for damaging the environment.

The Guardian was en route to Indonesia after making a rest and refueling stop in Subic Bay, a former American naval base west of Manila, when it ran aground before dawn Jan. 17. It strayed more than 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) into an offshore area off-limits to navigation before hitting the reef, Songco said.

Philippine officials are considering asking the International Maritime Organization, the U.N. agency responsible for improving maritime safety, to declare the Tubbataha park a “particularly sensitive sea area” so steps can be taken to further protect the area from future shipping accidents, she said.

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

And so the world turns

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Air Force Brat said:

To many choclate bunnies, ????????, or partying with Mig 29?????

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

Does it have to be one or the other? What if its a combination?

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