US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Jura said:

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The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes

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(I noticed through

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at first, moments later at gazeta.ru Breaking News

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)

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

reminder Russia has been spending a lot of Oil money on new ICBM's and SLBM's

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Jura said:

scary in several ways:
Admiral: Time is running out to begin updating nukes

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

The US has been putting of updating it's Deterrence programs for awhile ...

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Jura said:

...
A Firewalled Nuke Fund Is Bad Budgeting and Bad Planning

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Popular Mechanics said:

over Utah. The missile is designed to be carried internally by the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, preserving its stealthy profile for high-risk missions.

The Joint Strike Missile (JSM) is a new long range anti-ship and anti-surface missile. Derived from Norwegian defense contractor Kongsberg's Naval Strike Missile, JSM is capable of being carried in the internal weapons bays of the F-35 fighter. This helps preserve the F-35's carefully designed stealth characteristics for dangerous missions against advanced enemy air defenses. It can also fit on the external launch rails of existing aircraft—in the test over Utah, the JSM was launched from an F-16 fighter.

The test, carried out over the Utah Test and Training Range, involved a safe separation of missile from aircraft, long range flight, and alternating speed and altitude. JSM is a highly maneuverable missile that conducts high-g maneuvers to avoid anti-missile systems such as the

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.

The JSM is a subsonic missile driven by a turbojet engine. It uses an imaging infrared sensor to identify its target, and carries a 276 pound blast fragmentation warhead. JSM isn't just useful against land targets. Over the ocean it can fly low over the wavetops in order to stay off enemy radars as long as possible. The missile is capable of picking out specific targets—such as an aircraft carrier—from a battle group and then targeting specific features, such as the ship's bridge.

Another plus for Joint Strike Missile—designing it to fit inside the F-35 also made it compatible with the Mk.41 vertical launch missile silo built into American and allied warships. This ability to integrate with an existing launcher—and not bolting a new one onto a ship's superstructure—makes it a lot easier to adopt with a minimum of difficulties than some alternatives.

The Joint Strike Missile comes at a time when Russia and China's aggressive use of naval power has the U.S., NATO, and other allied navies are looking to upgrade their anti-ship missile arsenals. The ability of the missile to fit inside the F-35 and Mk. 41 makes it a pretty compelling choice.

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Army releases plan for acquiring new helicopters, robotics, vehicles and more through 2050

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• Updated 12 hrs ago

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• Abigail Meyer

First Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division Bradley Fighting Vehicles stand ready at Range 88 in Orogrande, N.M., Oct. 14, 2016. U.S. Army photo by Abigail Meyer, Fort Bliss Public Affairs


In a presentation to industry last week in Virginia, the Army laid out their plan to modernize current equipment and acquire new capabilities.

In the plan, revealed at the Capabilities Information Exchange, sponsored by the Army Capabilities Integration Center, the Army lays out their "Big 6+1" categories. The "6" are Future Vertical Lift, Combat Vehicles, Cross Domain Fires, Advanced Protection, Expeditionary Mission Command/Cyber and Robotics. The "+1" is Soldier and Team Performance and Overmatch. By using those criteria, the service has mapped out the modernization efforts in the short, mid and long term time ranges in aviation, ground vehicles and other capabilities.

All of it is in support of Multi-Domain Battle, which the service defines as operations that support superiority across multiple "domains", like cyber, land, sea, air and others.

Above left, V-280 Valor (photo courtesy Bell)

Above right, SB-1 Defiant (photo courtesy Boeing)

Aviation

2018-2022: Several things are planned for this time frame. One, complete the Aviation Restructuring Initiative, which pairs AH-64 Apaches with unmanned systems to replace the OH-58 Kiowas. Two, continue modernization of the AH-64 fleet to the E-model Apache Guardian variant, the UH-60 fleet to the M and V model variant, and improve the CH-47F heavy lift chopper.

It also plans to complete the demonstrator phase of the Future Vertical Lift program, which is the future of Army aviation. Boeing/Sikorsky and Bell Helicopters are competing there with the SB-1 Defiant and V-280 Valor, respectively.

2023-2027: The Army plans to begin the fielding of the CH-47F Chinook Block II, complete the AH-46E and UH-60M/V fielding, integrate the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), improve surviability and visibility, field a runway-independent unmanned aerial system (UAS) and develop the Capability Set 2 and 3 of Future Vertical Lift. Set 2 is similar to the Navy's SH-60 Sea Hawk and Set 3 is the UH-60 Black Hawk replacement.

2028-2050: The Army hopes to field the FVL Capability Sets 2 and 3 aircraft and the CH-47 Block III.

+2

Aerial drone image of an M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank crew, from the 1st Armor Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, conducting Table VI Gunnery at Fort Stewart, Ga. December 8, 2016. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Erick Ritterby)

Master Sgt. Erick Ritterby
Ground Vehicles

From 2018 to 2022, the Army plans to improve the mobility and lethality of it's vehicles. They'll do that by fielding the Ground Mobility Vehicle, Joint Light Tactical Vehicle as an interim Light Reconnaissance vehicle and introducing the Armored Multipurpose Vehicle to replace the "obsolete" M113 armored personnel carrier. The service will also add 30mm cannon to their Europe-based Stryker unit, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment. That's because the unit is outgunned by their Russian counterparts.

In addition, development will be done on the Future Fighting Vehicle, which will replace the Bradley. The Army also wants to develop next generation power trains.

2023-2027: The service wants to improve Stryker lethality through weapons and optics upgrades, continue development of the FFV and introduce autonomous ground recon systems.

2028-2050: The focus will be on the Army's armored forces. New direct fire systems will be introduced, such as a new main battle tank, which would replace the legendary M1A2 Abrams. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle will also be replaced by the Future Fighting Vehicle.

Cross Domain Fires

2018-2022: Restoring the Army's mine dispersion systems within the parameters of the Mine Ban Treaty is the main priority.

2023-2050: Plans are to introduce Terrain Shaping Obstacles, field an treaty-compliant land-mine replacement system, and re-introduce area-denial artillery.


Robotics

2018-2022: The Army wants to develop Automated Ground Resupply, to reduce troop presence in convoys, and use robots for route clearance.

2023-2027: The service is seeking to develop unmanned aerial cargo systems, increase payloads and even introduce exoskeleton technology.

2028-2050: The long-term goal for the Army's robotics is for them to "operate in advance of maneuver forces to establish network, provide long-range fire data and local security".

Other Capabilities

2018-2022: Active Protection Systems, which protect vehicles from missiles, along with missile warning and countermeasures programs, will be a priority. The goal is also to upgrade the Common Missile Warning System and the Radar Warning Receiver and then field the CMWS replacement and the Advanced Threat Detection System. In addition, the Army will integrate cyber, space and electronic warfare operations to gain and maintain superiority. Finally, the plan is to improve manned-unmanned teaming with ground forces.

2023-2027:Vehicle armor will be upgraded through adaptive, hard/soft kill and active blast technologies. In addition, the Army will help to "Maintain overmatch in the space and cyberspace domains" and "Counter enemies employing technology to disrupt U.S. advantages in communications, long-range precision fires, and surveillance".

2028-2050: The plan is to integrate aircraft survivability into the Future Vertical Lift program, employ offensive and defensive cyberspace tools and reduce the size and weight of soldier equipment. In addition the Modern Warrior of 2050 initiative will be implemented.

The next Capabilities Integration Exchange will be held 2017, and is part of an effort to better interface with industry.

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Congress is setting the defense budget on autopilot and high-tailing it out of town, leaving a lot of unfinished business behind. While President Obama is set to sign the

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for 2017 into law, this Congress left the funding bills in shambles for the next session to fix. As a stopgap, an

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(CR) essentially keeps defense spending on autopilot at last year’s levels, with no provision to start new programs, grow existing ones, or end bad ones. The CR will seriously hamper the military’s efforts to crawl

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, known as sequestration. We can do better to prepare for the

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championed by

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.

Out of ostensible deference to the

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, Congress intends to wait until April to pass proper funding bills for the federal government, including defense spending. But the incoming administration’s intentions are not a mystery.

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campaigned on

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, and there’s no need for Congress to wait for Trump to request the funding before getting started. Congress can lead the way on this military buildup early next year by passing

1. a full 2017 defense appropriations bill early in the new year, and
2. a subsequent
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   to give the Pentagon long-needed budgetary relief.

Why does it matter if Congress passes a proper spending bill instead of a Continuing Resolution? Well, a CR merely funds all agencies and line items at the same level as the prior year, and it prevents new programs or production increases. That’s a major problem for the military, since so much changes from year to year. The current CR

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a few major exceptions requested by the Department of Defense: the Navy’s new

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program, Army helicopter multiyear funding, the Air Force

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program, and

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for increased operations in

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, and

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.

But billions of dollars remain misaligned. Earlier, the Pentagon

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78 new starts and 89 production increases in just the first half of the fiscal year — which, by the way, began two months ago on Oct. 1. For example, a CR would only fund a fourth of the Army’s expanded

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. Several more

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will be hamstrung, such as the Marine Corps

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heavy-lift helicopter, the Army-Marine

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program, and the Air Force program to replace the

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that currently launch our satellites into space. These items are just the tip of the iceberg; there’s dozens more in each service that will go unaddressed until Congress passes a defense spending bill.

...

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Two 2017 defense appropriations bill have already been written; the House passed its version, but the Senate’s was filibustered by Democrats indignant that defense was getting relief from sequester and domestic programs were not. The policy bill — the

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— has already passed both chambers. Most of the line items in these bills are untouched or only marginally changed from the Pentagon’s original request. Using that framework, Congress could very rapidly pass a full defense appropriations bill at the NDAA-recommended funding levels to give the Pentagon crucial stability.

But that’s just funding (more or less)

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. To address well-known shortfalls across

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and

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that Obama did not fix, and to prepare the way for a larger military buildup promised by Trump, will require

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.

President-elect Trump’s proposed military buildup

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per year above Budget Control Act cap levels. The sooner the Pentagon receives that funding, the better. Already, House Armed Services Committee chairman

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(R-TX) and Senate Armed Services Committee member

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(R-AR) pledged to pursue a supplemental defense spending bill early in the new year. Vice President-elect Mike Pence

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that call by asking for a defense supplemental within the first 100 days.

As with the full appropriations bill, a framework for a military supplemental already exists. There is precedent for this: In fiscal year 1981, appropriators gave the Department of Defense more money than outgoing President Carter had requested, priming the pump for President Reagan’s massive increases.

This year, Republicans on both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees

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for about $18 billion more in overall military spending spread among endstrength increases, readiness improvements, and select equipment that largely hewed to the service’s unfunded priorities. The Senate attempted to authorize this extra spending through a failed amendment. The House, by contrast, tried to achieve this extra expenditure by reallocating war funding (

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funds, or OCO) to base-budget needs, which Democrats and GOP budget hawks saw as an irresponsible fiscal gimmick.

In the end, the pressure by both authorizing committees on Democrats, the White House and Pentagon leaders netted about $9 billion, or half their target. The

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includes an extra $3.2 billion of committee-directed emergency money designated as base spending to fund endstrength increases and readiness improvements. The final policy bill also includes an extra $5.8 billion in extra pure emergency spending pursuant to a secondary OCO request filed late in 2016 by the Pentagon to pay for increased military efforts in

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and

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.

What does this mean for the 2017 defense supplemental? The services already have about $15 billion in identified and agreed-upon

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. The appropriations defense subcommittees also included billions more in their own priorities.

As we wrote back in

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, the procurement account was likely to bear the brunt of inadequate funding in 2017 no matter the outcome of the defense bills. Nearly every procurement cut identified in our original analysis remained on the books, and many of the congressionally pursued increases to certain programs —

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,

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, extra

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, more

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— did not materialize.

While a net loss for procurement this year was expected, the scale of the loss remains surprising. This is exactly where

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to direct additional funds as part of an

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in the first 100 days to begin to rebuild the military. Since Congress took care to designate this year’s extra funding toward

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, modernization must now become a higher priority: It’s great to have more troops, training, fuel, & spare parts, but even the most ready personnel can only do so much with geriatric weapons.

If the Congress can provide exceptions to the continuing resolution and pass a double-digit increase in the defense budget early next year, 2017 will be remembered as the start of a much-needed

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.

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The Pentagon has announced plans to open a manufacturing institute focused on the creation of human tissue biofabrication, which will be the seventh defense-related manufacturing center under the Obama administration’s Manufacturing USA program.

The Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI) will be based in Manchester, New Hampshire, with the mission to “organize the current fragmented domestic capabilities in tissue biofabrication technology and better position the U.S. relative to global competition,” according to an announcement from the Pentagon.

Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official who was on hand at a White House event to announce the decision to award ARMI with government funding, called keeping America’s manufacturing edge ““fundamentally important to our national security.”

As an example, Kendall told a story about how during the Cold War, Pentagon planners were concerned about the technological genius of Soviet engineers, but discovered after the war that the equipment suffered from inferior manufacturing techniques and materials. Making sure US industry continues to produce at a high quality is vital for American defense, he added.

Biofabrication is a catchall term for new innovations in the biotechnology world, including “biomaterial and cell processing, bioprinting, automation and non-destructive testing technologies for critical Department of Defense and novel commercial use.” Among the early projects ARMI will focus on are “high-throughput culture technologies, 3D biofabrication technologies, bioreactors, storage methodologies, non-destructive evaluation, real-time monitoring/sensing, and detection technologies.”

The Pentagon hopes ARMI research will eventually lead to new technologies that could be used to replace limbs or heal other injuries sustained by American forces in combat, Kendall said. He added that the ability to manufacture new organs could have a major impact on Americans facing long wait lists for transplants.

The federal government will kick in $80 million in funding, while the consortium of industry and non-industry partners will combine for an additional $214 million.

Among the ARMI consortium members are industry partners such as Abbott, Autodesk, Becton Dickinson, Celularity, DEKA Research & Development, GenCure, Humacyte, Lonza, Medtronic, Rockwell Automation, and United Therapeutics’, as well as academic partners such as Arizona State University, Boston University, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rutgers, Stanford University, the University of Florida, the University of Minnesota, the University of New Hampshire, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Yale University.

Created in 2013, the Manufacturing USA initiative – technically known as the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation – is a network of private-public research centers of excellence spread around the country, with each center focused on a different technological area of study. With Wednesday’s announcement, there are twelve such centers, with the Pentagon taking the lead in seven of them.

The concept of the partnership ties back into the same ideas that have driven Secretary of Defense Ash Carter’s innovation drive – that the commercial sector is driving the growth of technologies and that the government should take a role in helping to guide where that research goes in order to maintain America’s technological edge.

The ARMI announcement came as part of a White House celebration of the initiative, with several speakers expressing confidence the program would continue going forward. However, the future of Manufacturing USA under president-elect Donald Trump’s administration is unclear.

While Trump has spoken about the need to increase manufacturing domestically, his choice for budget director, Rep. Mick Mulvaney, has questioned the need for publicly-funded research and is expected to look for ways to cut the federal budget. Federal funding is vital for the Manufacturing USA strategy, and cuts could lead to the network collapsing in the future.

For now, the program continues pushing forward, with Kendall noting that he will be awarding an eighth, as of yet unnamed, defense-focused center for excellence before he leaves office at the end of the Obama administration.

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