US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

USS George Washington Begins Midlife Refueling, Overhaul With Benefit of Lessons From 5 Previous Aircraft Carriers

Aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73) began a 48-month Refueling and Complex Overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding earlier this month after serving for seven years as the forward-deployed carrier in Japan, creating a somewhat unique work package for the Navy’s sixth-ever RCOH.

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Test Squadron Retires Navy’s Last EA-6B Prowler

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy’s last EA-6B Prowler electronic attack aircraft was retired Aug. 29 in ceremonies at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., according to a report confirmed by a Navy spokesman.

The Prowler, flown by Air Test & Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23), endured long after the Navy retired the EA-6B from operational fleet service in 2015. It was used by VX-23 for various test work in support of electronic warfare technology development and in particular to support work for the remaining Marine Corps EA-6B squadrons.

The Marine Corps still operates two Prowler squadrons, Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron Three (VMAQ-3) and VMAQ-2. They will be retiring their Prowlers in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

The Grumman-built EA-6B was replaced in Navy service by the Boeing-built EA-18G Growler.

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KAUAI, Hawaii (NNS) -- The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and U.S. Navy sailors aboard USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) successfully conducted a complex missile defense flight test, resulting in the intercept of a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) target using Standard Missile (SM) 6 guided missiles during a test off the coast of Hawaii Aug. 30.

John Paul Jones detected and tracked a target missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii, with its onboard AN/SPY-1 radar and onboard SM-6 missiles executed the intercept.

"We are working closely with the fleet to develop this important new capability, and this was a key milestone in giving our Aegis BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) ships an enhanced capability to defeat ballistic missiles in their terminal phase," said MDA Director Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves. "We will continue developing ballistic missile defense technologies to stay ahead of the threat as it evolves."

This test, designated Flight Test Standard Missile (FTM) 27 Event 2, marks the second time that an SM-6 missile has successfully intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile target.

Aegis BMD is the naval component of the Ballistic Missile Defense System. MDA and the U.S. Navy cooperatively manage the Aegis BMD program. Additional information about all elements of the ballistic missile defense system can be found here

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Jura said:

May 10, 2017

but
PARIS: NAVAIR exploring shorter test schedule for CH-53K

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Naval Air Systems Command awarded Sikorsky $304 million for the first two CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopters for the Marine Corps.

Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, will build these two Lot I aircraft in its Stratford, Conn., facility. The aircraft should deliver in 2020, according to a Sikorsky statement following the contract modification award.

“We have just successfully launched the production of the most powerful helicopter our nation has ever designed,” Col. Hank Vanderborght, U.S. Marine Corps program manager for the Naval Air Systems Command’s (NAVAIR) heavy-lift helicopters program office, PMA-261.
“This incredible capability will revolutionize the way our nation conducts business in the battlespace by ensuring a substantial increase in logistical throughput into that battlespace. I could not be prouder of our government-contractor team for making this happen.”

The Pentagon formally approved the heavy-lift helo to enter low-rate initial production on April 4, after the Marines put the first four CH-53K engineering and development models through a

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and flying 110 nautical miles, among other requirements.

Since that Milestone C decision was approved, Sikorsky has continued testing, conducting a first “cross country” flight from Sikorsky’s Development Flight Center in West Palm Beach in Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The four EMD vehicles have totaled more than 450 hours of flight tests so far.

“This first movement of CH-53K flight testing to our customer’s facility denotes that the aircraft have achieved sufficient maturity to begin transitioning the focus of the test program from envelope expansion to system qualification testing,” Michael Torok, Sikorsky vice president of CH-53K programs,

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.
“This has been the plan from the beginning and is another important step toward getting these fantastic aircraft into the hands of the U.S. Marine Corps.”

Sikorsky will eventually reach a build rate of 24 helos a year after full-rate production begins in 2020,

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.

Vanderborght told reporters at the same event that the new aircraft would not only lift more than the legacy CH-53E but would also be more reliable and more maintainable, leading to a higher sortie-generation rate for the Marine Corps.

According to the Sikorsky news release, the helicopter’s cabin is a foot wider, which allows cargo pallets or humvees to be stowed internally while the troop seats remain installed. Its external hook system allows the helo to lift three separate payloads at the same time. And fly-by-wire flight controls and other automation reduces the workload for pilots to allow them to focus more on the mission and less on controlling the helicopter.

After buying the first two helos now, in Fiscal Year 2017, the Marine Corps

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, with

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.

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USS Jimmy Carter - Semper Optima

Larger, faster, deeper diving, better armed and stealthier than previous generations of US Navy attack submarine, the Seawolf Class (SSN-21) were conceived towards the end of the Cold War as the ultimate underwater hunter-killers. The end of the Cold War and a shift towards littoral combat, combined with their incredible cost, resulting in only three Seawolf Class boats being constructed before production switched to the smaller and cheaper Virginia Class. The last Seawolf Class was however something quite special: the USS Jimmy Carter is the US Navy’s premier ‘special mission’ submarine equipped for covert intelligence operations.

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Marine F-35s, Air Force Bombers Sortie with South Korea, Japan in Show of Force After North Korea Missile Tests

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Equation said:

I hope they will find that missing service member. It didn't say whether it was a Army Ranger, Special Forces or Navy Seal member.

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The Pentagon identified the soldier missing from a Black Hawk helicopter crash last week off the coast of Yemen as

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Staff Sgt. Emil Rivera-Lopez. His body has not been recovered

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and he is presumed dead, a Defense Department spokesman said.

Rivera-Lopez was listed as "duty status: whereabouts unknown," the Pentagon said Friday in a statement.

The Pentagon declined to provide additional information about Rivera-Lopez, including his age or unit. However, a defense official said Rivera-Lopez was assigned to the elite 160th

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Aviation Regiment. The unit, known as the Night Stalkers, specializes in flying difficult nighttime missions, often ferrying ground special operations troops into battle.

Five other soldiers were rescued after the helicopter crash, which took place about 20 miles off Yemen's coast during a training flight. The cause of the crash is under investigation, the Pentagon said, which also confirmed the helicopter was not involved in a combat mission.

The military has a small number of troops deployed in Yemen to aid the fight against an al-Qaida group in the country. It has conducted ground raids this year against the terrorist group there, including an operation in late January in which

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, and an MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft was destroyed after it crashed.

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Jura said:

Yesterday at 8:14 AM
related:
Defiant delayed: Joint multi-role demonstrator won’t fly in 2017

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From this point of view it appears even more futuristic….
As reported

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, the first prototype of V-280 Valor, Bell’s candidate to the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD), in the running to replace the service’s Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk and Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopters as part of the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program, was spotted at

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attached to an engine test stand in preparation for the engine tests required ahead of its first flight scheduled next month.

In this post you can see a photograph, submitted by a source who wishes to remain anonymous, that provides a side view of the V-280 prototype, registered

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Along with the retractable landing gear, a triple-redundant fly by wire control system, and a V-tail configuration, the main V-280 feature is the futuristic tilting gearbox design where the output shaft is connected to the drive system through a spiral bevel gearbox that transfers power to the fixed gearbox and proprotor gearbox, which rotates on two big spherical bearings driven by a conversion actuator mechanism. In this way, the gearbox is the only thing that rotates whereas the engines do not. Moreover, a driveshaft runs through the straight wing, allowing both prop rotors to be driven by a single engine in case of engine loss.

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