Two US aircraft carriers to stay in Middle East after Hezbollah attack

On the same subject

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  December 24, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Boeing’s Pentagon Takeover

  BY LARA SELIGMAN Patrick Shanahan, a former executive for the aerospace giant, is poised to take over for Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Boeing's growing clout with U.S. President Donald Trump's Pentagon can no longer be ignored. Trump announced Sunday morning on Twitter that he is forcing outgoing Defense Secretary James Mattis to leave earlier than expected, and he named Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, as acting secretary. Mattis, a retired Marine general, was slated to leave at the end of February. Shanahan will now take over on Jan. 1. “Patrick has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy, & previously Boeing. He will be great!” Trump tweeted. Although Shanahan has not been formally tapped for secretary of defense, which requires Senate confirmation, sources say he is one of the White House's top picks for the job. Shanahan's ascent is just the latest manifestation of the growing influence the world's largest aerospace company has in Trump's Pentagon. In the last six months, Boeing has wonthree multibillion-dollar competitions for major Department of Defense aircraft programs, despite massive delays in delivering a new tanker fleet to the U.S. Air Force. Now, senior Pentagon leaders are forcing the Air Force to purchase a new version of Boeing's legacy F-15 fighter, a non-stealth jet that first flew in 1972, which will compete for the Air Force's limited resources with Lockheed Martin's new F-35 fighter jet. The reportedly $1.2 billion proposal to buy the a dozen new variants of the “F-15X,” the same version of the aircraft Boeing is building for Qatar, reflects Boeing's outsize influence with senior leaders in the Trump administration, a phenomenon that dates back to the beginning of the president's term. As early as February 2017, Trump floated buying additional Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, instead of the F-35. The U.S. Navy placed an order for over 100 new Super Hornets this spring. Trump also has a personal relationship with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg. The two men negotiated directly to reach a $3.9 billion deal for a new Air Force One presidential aircraft, which Trump claimed saves taxpayers $1.4 billion. Certainly, Boeing has fought hard to offer the Pentagon its products at extremely competitive prices and allowed the department to boast considerable cost savings. Boeing has adopted “an across-the-board aggressive posture in lobbying, pricing, and product development, largely due to fears that they were being eclipsed,” said Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group. In addition, “very strong profits from Boeing's commercial jetliner side ... permits more aggressive bids by the military side.” Full article: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/23/boeing-pentagon-takeover-defense-department-mattis-shanahan

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  June 23, 2021 | International, Land

  The case for a defense budget that focuses more on China, less on climate change

  Two House Republican leaders argue that with the Pentagon's new budget request, you can almost hear the laughter of the United States' adversaries.

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  August 8, 2019 | International, Land

  Soon to come to the Army: A high-power microwave to take out drone swarms

  By: Jen Judson HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — The Army is planning to field a high-power microwave capability to take out drone swarms as part of its Indirect Fires Protection Capability system in development. Through the Army's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) the service is looking to get the capability fielded to a unit by 2024 with a demonstration of the capability planned in 2022, the RCCTO director said August 7 at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium. RCCTO's job is to serve as a bridge between the science and technology community and the program executive offices, helping bring technology out of development and into soldiers' hands, first on a small scale and then a larger scale when passed off to program offices. The RCCTO right now is focused entirely on hypersonics and directed energy weapons. The IFPC system is being developed to counter rockets, artillery and mortar, as well as cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft systems, and the means to do that would be through a system featuring multiple types of missiles and also a laser capability to take out threats. Adding lasers to the mix means decreasing the number of expensive shots that would be taken against very inexpensive weapons. The Army is working to initially field a 100-kilowatt laser capability on a Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles as part of the IFPC program with a plan to demonstrate the capability in 2022 and then field prototypes to a unit. And the RCCTO is also looking at how to field even more powerful lasers for the IFPC mission between 250 and 300 kilowatts. But the service recognizes it might be easier to disrupt the flight of multiple drones at once rather than try to take out each one with a laser. “Lasers can do things but if you are a combatant commander, there is a toolbox of things you need to be successful on the battle space,” Thurgood said. “It's not just one tool but a series of tools.” So the program is teaming with the Air Force's effort to develop a high power microwave capability, he said. The Air Force will do the research and development work, but the Army will supply them with funding to build prototypes. The goal is to demonstrate a high-power microwave capability in 2022 and then field the capability to a small unit, much like what the RCCTO will do with the IFPC high-energy laser system. If the laser and high-power microwave capability both work well in small units, then they will transition to programs of record within the IFPC program, Thurgood said. Earlier this year, the Army awarded a contract to Dynetics, who is partnered with Lockheed Martin and Rolls Royce, to build the 100-kilowatt laser system for IFPC. The Army is also rapidly fielding a 50-kilowatt laser on a Stryker. Raytheon and Northrop Grumman are competing to build the system and, in FY21, the two lasers will be tested on difficult threats. The service will choose on to build prototypes that will be fielded to a Platoon in FY22. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/smd/2019/08/07/the-armys-indirect-fires-protection-system-is-getting-a-high-power-microwave/