US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

The USAF has been in discussions with Boeing to bring production of the F-15 up to as much as 48 aircraft per year from the current rate of 24. Outside of that, F-16 production is also ramping up to about 48 aircraft per year as Lockheed has 100+ F-16V orders in backlog.



Oh, and for all that talk about canceling the E-7, it turns out the Air Force wants them after all.


EDIT: Rather than create a new post.

The U.S. Air Force is asking for just over $296 million to support work on the new ARRW variant in

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. This money would fund “the design, test, and evaluation of Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) Increment 2 with terminal seeker and data link capability and other cost reduction production initiatives into ARRW,” according to official budget documents.

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Furthermore, the “ARRW [program] designed, developed, manufactured, and tested, [sic] a number of prototype vehicles to inform decisions concerning ARRW acquisition, production, and leave behind capability,” the budget documents add. “ARRW Inc.2 adds enhanced capability.”

“FY27 [Fiscal Year 2027] plans to begin [ARRW] INC 2 technology efforts such as but not limited to integrating pre-planned product improvements, design, trade studies, hardware upgrades, facilitization, affordability initiatives, and testing,” the documents also note.

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Wild to think that the AGM-188 was at one point “cancelled” and yet now not only are they operationalizing it, but are adding significant capabilities to it as well.

SlothmanAllen said:

The USAF has been in discussions with Boeing to bring production of the F-15 up to as much as 48 aircraft per year from the current rate of 24. Outside of that, F-16 production is also ramping up to about 48 aircraft per year as Lockheed has 100+ F-16V orders in backlog.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2054352241549582846

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2053930700152230348

Oh, and for all that talk about canceling the E-7, it turns out the Air Force wants them after all.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2054265369942954480

EDIT: Rather than create a new post.

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Wild to think that the AGM-188 was at one point “cancelled” and yet now not only are they operationalizing it, but are adding significant capabilities to it as well.

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Obviously they are not going into the West Pacific fight with ancient AWACs.

I observe that USN's new Shipbuilding Plan contains markedly fewer surface combatants than the previous shipbuilding plan published in April 2023 . Under the old plan, in FY'2035 USN would have 116 surface combatants. Under the new, it is down to 102. There are actually 20 fewer surface combatants scheduled to be delivered to USN between FY'2027 and FY'2035 under the new plan than under the old plan. At first I thought that the discrepancy between the two counts above (-14 and -20) might be accounted for by fewer retirements under the new plan than the old, however the total number of retirements over the period is actually consistent between the two plans, although the distribution is rather different. It turns out that most of discrepancy is accounted for by USN entering FY'2027 with more surface combatants than was assumed under the FY'2024 plan (113 vs. 108), which I suspect is a function of the decision to not retire a number of LCSs that were previously scheduled for early retirement. One would've thought that the demise of the FFG-62 program and replacement with FF(X) would account for most of the losses between the plans, but there are actually more DDGs absent (-11) than frigates (-9).

Of course the arrival of the first Trump-class BBGN in 2036 will revolutionise naval warfare and render legacy concerns such as the number of hulls in the inventory obsolete.

Temstar said:

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Trump-class BB has this uncanny ability to be a meme when it should be serious but then have serious aspects when you just flat out trying to treat it as a meme. Nuclear power is at once sensible for a ship of that magnitude yet also a joke because it will screw up their carrier construction plan even more than it already is.

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CNO Admiral Caudle has that BBGN will use an A1B reactor from the Ford-class CVN program.

Per the FY'2027 Budget Materials (), Contract Award is anticipated for April 2028, Start of Construction by August 2028 and delivery by August 2036.

SlothmanAllen said:

The USAF has been in discussions with Boeing to bring production of the F-15 up to as much as 48 aircraft per year from the current rate of 24. Outside of that, F-16 production is also ramping up to about 48 aircraft per year as Lockheed has 100+ F-16V orders in backlog.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2054352241549582846

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2053930700152230348

Oh, and for all that talk about canceling the E-7, it turns out the Air Force wants them after all.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2054265369942954480

EDIT: Rather than create a new post.

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Wild to think that the AGM-188 was at one point “cancelled” and yet now not only are they operationalizing it, but are adding significant capabilities to it as well.

Click to expand...

How can they start discussing Increment 2 when baseline ARRW isn't even finished?

My opinion: The baseline ARRW is dead; nobody really likes it. But the USAF really has no other choice but to continue improving it in the hopes of saving it

Its not gonna get finished. Plan is to use arrw increment 1 to continue development of the concept so they can make increment 2. Only 2's design will enter service while 1 will remain just a developmental variant. Given the increment differences in prsm missile, its possible that arrw increment differences will also be substantial.

Marine V-22B up close.






Similar plane during Biden admin.

Temstar said:

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View attachment 174818
Trump-class BB has this uncanny ability to be a meme when it should be serious but then have serious aspects when you just flat out trying to treat it as a meme. Nuclear power is at once sensible for a ship of that magnitude yet also a joke because it will screw up their carrier construction plan even more than it already is.


For comparison, even the ballooning cost for USS Doris Miller is projected to be $14 billion (up from $13 billion average unit cost expected for Ford class)

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The Trump battleships aren't just going to screw up carrier construction.
The battleships are supposed to replace the DDGX, the Arleigh Burke successor.

And I wouldn't be surprised if existing Arleigh Burke construction is disrupted as well.

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The battleship design is still to be finalised, yet I think they will sign firm contracts and start construction asap.
Still, the first battleship won't be ready before Trump leaves. So I think it will be launched half finished, so that Trump can still perform a commissioning ceremony before he leaves.

bsdnf said:

How can they start discussing Increment 2 when baseline ARRW isn't even finished?

My opinion: The baseline ARRW is dead; nobody really likes it. But the USAF really has no other choice but to continue improving it in the hopes of saving it

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The Navy has never stopped soliciting terminal guidance technologies for high mach vehicles (for CPS/LRHW).

U Notre Dame and several other companies have worked on aero-optics program for both Navy and the Air Force (AFRL funded). All of this was going on while ARRW was supposedly on the chopping block.

This enhanced capability is likely a new type of EO/IR seeker for future US hypersonics to strike moving targets and to be able to sense its environment. The NUDT professor who solved the issue of aerooptics in Chinese vehicles cites Notre Dame researchers work heavily:

gpt said:

They hinted at developing exotic terminal guidance several years ago. There are many institutes working on this very hard material science problem, this is a promising solution from one team:

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Profile of the

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who led this team.

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AndrewS said:

So I think it will be launched half finished, so that Trump can still perform a commissioning ceremony before he leaves.

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2 years left, I cannot see anything done before Trump leaves, maybe a cardboard ship.

Soldiers not allowed to modify or repair damaged equipment,

Only manufacturer can repair, per new law,