US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

>The U.S. weapon system will come at a steep price. It would cost nearly $18 billion to buy 300 of the weapons and maintain them over 20 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Pretty steep for Walmart "HGVs" but still less than I expected tbh.

ismellcopium said:

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>The U.S. weapon system will come at a steep price. It would cost nearly $18 billion to buy 300 of the weapons and maintain them over 20 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Pretty steep for Walmart "HGVs" but still less than I expected tbh.

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so 60m a piece?

Yeah, that ain't happening with how inflation is gonna be for US, especially over 20 years.

Not to mention, pretty sure they still don't even have a fully working prototype yet, or do they?

Gator fleet a shambles. @TomShurghart better think up another China sub sinking story pronto to deflect from this:

Maikeru said:

Gator fleet a shambles. @TomShurghart better think up another China sub sinking story pronto to deflect from this:

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Great report! Shows how difficult, if not impossible, it is to maintain a Navy without the required industrial base behind it. Congressional bureaucracy and disfunction also isn't helping the issues.

Interesting article about a follow up to the US military's Proliferated Low Earth Orbit architecture. Bruno has worked in highly classified missile and space programs for decades so is somewhat representative of US posture and thinking
Some takeaways:
- the US thinks a Proliferated architecture of 'Starshield' satellites alone is not impervious to a surprise attack by China
- need a mix of a large number of cheap sats LEO, a few more expensive sats in harder to reach orbits all working together
- need a sort of "WW2 Destroyer" type armed and mobile satellite to protect the harder to reach sats (in a way that doesn't generate bunch of debris)

I guess this is the first autonomous / semi-autonomous ground vehicle in United States military service? I had no clue the Navy was going to procure the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS)?

I remember seeing it demoed a couple of years ago, but didn't think it was an active program. According the article linked below, they have 121 systems ordered and with two Naval Strike Missiles per carrier gives them 242 antiship missiles, not an insignificant amount.

SlothmanAllen said:

I guess this is the first autonomous / semi-autonomous ground vehicle in United States military service? I had no clue the Navy was going to procure the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS)?

I remember seeing it demoed a couple of years ago, but didn't think it was an active program. According the article linked below, they have 121 systems ordered and with two Naval Strike Missiles per carrier gives them 242 antiship missiles, not an insignificant amount.

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Why don’t they use a bigger, more robust platform like Strikers? The two missiles it carries cost a lot too.

vincent said:

Why don’t they use a bigger, more robust platform like Strikers? The two missiles it carries cost a lot too.

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Probably to be able for them to be airlifted by CH-53E or maybe even CH-47 Chinook ...

Atomicfrog said:

Probably to be able for them to be airlifted by CH-53E or maybe even CH-47 Chinook ...

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I am not sure, but you might even be able to air drop it which would make a lot of sense for a remote / autonomous vehicle.

Looks like Bell Helicopter is advancing their rotor to jet aircraft concept having recently completed captive ground tests of transitioning from turboprop to turbofan along with folding of the fan blades. They have also completed wind tunnel testing of the aircraft. All of this will culminate in a demonstrator aircraft being flown under the DARPA Speed and Runway Independent Technology (SPRINT) program.