Saturday, June 27, 2020

Ukrainian R-360 cruise missiles hit the naval target


State tests of the national R-360 “Neptune” missile system are ongoing successfully and effectively in Odesa region. Launches are carried out at the firing range “Alibey” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The main feature of the tests of the “Neptune” ground-based cruise missile system this time was the warhead firing. It is a system of ground-based cruise missiles with an anti-ship missile, designed to destroy cruiser, destroyer, frigate, corvette, landing, tank landing and transport ships, which operate both independently and as part of naval task force and landing detachments, as well as radio targets, in simple and complex meteorological conditions at any time of day and year, with active fire and electronic warfare measures of the enemy.

During the last test the newest Ukrainian RK-360MT Neptun coastal missile system made a successful test launch of two R-360 cruise missiles from the designated area in the Odessa region to targets at the Alibey range.


Thursday, June 25, 2020

House Defense Bill Pushes Hypersonic Weapons for Zumwalt Destroyers, Slows LUSV Procurement


Sailors man the rails aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) as the ship pulls into Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on April 2, 2019. US Navy Photo

The House Armed Services Committee may force the Navy to begin integrating hypersonic weapons onto the Zumwalt class of destroyers, something the sea service has talked about but not prioritized in its budget.

The Navy was put in charge of developing a common hypersonic glide body that will ultimately serve as a conventional prompt global strike weapon for the joint force, providing an alternative to nuclear weapons for strategic retaliatory strikes.

The Navy said early in development that it wanted to develop the weapon to the most stringent possible requirement – a weapon that could survive an underwater launch from a submarine – thereby making it easier to integrate the weapon into multiple kinds of launchers.

Earlier this year the service said it would devote money to integrating the weapon onto its Virginia Payload Module, a set of missile tubes added onto the Block V and beyond Virginia-class attack submarines. The Navy requested just over $1 billion in the Fiscal Year 2021 budget request for this effort, which would cover “continued development of the weapon system and flight subsystem, platform integration, and advanced research and development to support future spiral capabilities such as enhanced warhead, advanced communication, alternative navigation, and terminal sensor technology.” The weapon would reach initial operational capability in FY 2028, when it would be ready for use on the Virginia submarines., according to Navy budget documents.

In a section of its FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, the HASC strategic forces subcommittee directs the Navy to focus on surface ship integration, too.

A common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB) launches from Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii, at approximately 10:30 p.m. local time, March 19, 2020, during a Department of Defense flight experiment. The U.S. Navy and U.S. Army jointly executed the launch of the C-HGB, which flew at hypersonic speed to a designated impact point. Concurrently, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) monitored and gathered tracking data from the flight experiment that will inform its ongoing development of systems designed to defend against adversary hypersonic weapons. US Navy photo.

“The bill mandates that the department start integration of hypersonics on surface ships, on DDG-1000s, given that the department has been primarily focused on sub-based platforms,” a committee aide told reporters.
“And it asks for a report on certain questions and concerns that are ongoing, including operational control authority, whether we need to update our war plans, who would be responsible for targeting requirements, what the risks of miscalculation would be and what the risk mitigations might be, and finally on basing strategies for a land-based variant. And then it also requires a [Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation] report on costs and testing.”

Specifically, the bill calls for the Navy to start integration efforts on the Zumwalt class no later than Jan. 1, 2021.

Commander of Naval Surface Forces Vice Adm. Rich Brown has expressed interest in putting hypersonic weapons on the Zumwalt class, saying that the ship’s larger size, power generation and missile launcher compared to the Arleigh Burke-class DDG made it a great host for the conventional prompt strike weapon.

“I have got to tell you, I am thoroughly impressed with the capabilities that that destroyer will bring into our fleet. As a matter of fact, I would love to have six more of them, because the capabilities are that good. If you look at conventional prompt strike, I can think of no other better platform than to put conventional prompt strike on that platform. And then once that happens, or if that happens, make no mistake, it will put the fear of god into our adversaries once we marry those two platforms together,” he said during a media call.

The report to Congress that the NDAA language mandates would begin to address some thorny issues related to use of force, risk of escalation, command and control and more.

The submarine community has worked out some of these issues, having a Navy platform using a national strategic weapon – nuclear missiles – in its Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) program. Though it would be the Virginia-class SSNs firing off strategic hypersonic CPGS weapons – and those crews would have to manage having both strategic weapons for national tasking as well as their own weapons for self-defense and strike missions within their Navy fleet chain of command – it’s likely that some of the submarine community’s understanding of command and control, underwater communications, and training for national tasking could be put in place on the attack subs.

However, no surface ships today are equipped with these kinds of strategic weapons and have to deal with these kinds of issues.

The measure still has to survive a full committee vote next month, a full House of Representatives vote and then agreement by the Senate before being signed into law.

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

China launches final satellite in GPS-like Beidou system

BEIJING — China on Tuesday launched the final satellite in its Beidou constellation that emulates and may seek to compete with the U.S. Global Positioning System, marking a further step in the country’s advance as a major space power.


A rocket carrying the last satellite of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System blasts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province on June 23, 2020. (Xue Chen/Xinhua via AP)

The launch of the satellite onboard a Long March-3 rocket was broadcast live from the satellite launch base of Xichang, deep in the mountains of southwestern China, shortly before 10 a.m. About half an hour later, the satellite was deployed in orbit and extended its solar panels to provide its energy.

An initial launch scheduled for last week was scrubbed after checks revealed unspecified technical problems.

The third iteration of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System promises to provide global coverage for timing and navigation, offering an alternative to Russia’s GLONASS and the European Galileo systems, as well as America’s GPS.

The launch of the 55th satellite in the Beidou family shows China’s push to provide global coverage has been “entirely successful,” the system’s chief designer, Yang Changfeng, told state broadcaster CCTV.

“In actual fact, this also signifies that we are moving from being a major nation in the field of space to becoming a true space power,” Yang said.

China’s space program has developed rapidly over the past two decades as the government devotes major resources toward developing independent high-tech capabilities — and even dominating in fields such as 5G data processing.

The first version of Beidou, meaning “Big Dipper,” was decommissioned in 2012. Future plans call for a smarter, more accessible and more integrated system with Beidou at its core, to come online by 2035.

The now complete current system, known as BDS-3, consists of 30 satellites and began providing navigation services in 2018 to countries taking part in China’s sprawling “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative, along with others, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. It largely relies on medium-Earth orbit satellites, but also operates six geosynchronous orbit satellites such as the one launched Tuesday, Xinhua said.

Along with being a navigation aid, the system offers “short message communication, satellite-based augmentation, international search and rescue, as well as precise point positioning,” Xinhua said. The short messaging systems allows for communications up to 1,200 Chinese characters long, as well as the ability to transmit images, it said.

While China says it seeks cooperation with other satellite navigation systems, Beidou could ultimately compete against GPS and others in the same way Chinese cellphone makers and other producers of technically sophisticated hardware have taken on their foreign rivals.

In 2003, China became just the third country to independently launch a crewed space mission and has since constructed an experimental space station and sent a pair of rovers to the surface of the moon.

Future plans call for a fully functioning permanent space station and a possible crewed flight to the moon, with its first attempt to send an orbiter and rover to Mars possibly coming as early as next month. If successful, it would be the only other country besides the U.S. to land on Earth’s closest planetary neighbor.

The program has suffered some setbacks, including launch failures, and has had limited cooperation with other countries’ space efforts, in part because of U.S. objections to its close connections to the Chinese military.

Size comparison between T-14 Armata and M1A2, Leopard 2, BM Oplot, Type 99, Leclerc and Merkava.

Size comparison between T-14 Armata and M1A2, Leopard 2, BM Oplot, Type 99, Leclerc and Merkava




The First Photos Of The Mars-2000 Reconnaissance Combat Vehicle on the Basis of the BTR-82

The First Photos Of The Mars-2000 Reconnaissance Combat Vehicle on the Basis of the BTR-82


Russia has developed the latest Mars-2000 reconnaissance combat vehicle based on the BTR-82 armored personnel carrier. The vehicle participate on victory day parade in Tula.

The First Photos Of The F-35A Jets Dropping Inert B61-12 Nuclear Bombs During DCA Tests

The F-35 Joint Program Office has released a bunch of images showing DCA (Dual Capable Aircraft) tests involving the release of inert nuclear bombs.

It is not a secret that the F-35A, the CTOL (Convetional Take Off and Landing) variant of the Lightning II aircraft, will be dual capable aircraft (DCA), meaning that it will have the ability to deliver nuclear ordnance as well as conventional weapons. Such dual capability is expected to be included in the Block 4 software release, with initial capability for the B61-12 weapon. Although the F-35A DCA is scheduled to achieve nuclear certification in January, 2023, testing at the 461st FLTS, the test squadron that oversees developmental testing of all variants of the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II at Edwards Air Force Base, California, has started in 2019.


DCA first safe separation from AF-1 on Jun. 27, 2019.

Images just released by the F-35 Joint Program Office (the Department of Defense’s agency responsible for developing and acquiring the F-35A/B/C) show various drop tests of inert nuclear bombs between 2019 and 2020.

F-35A AF-6 releases inert B61-12 during a dual capable aircraft (DCA) test flight in the skies above Edwards Air Force Base, California, on Nov. 25, 2011.

The photos distributed to the DVIDS distribution service provide additional details about the dates when the tests were carried out: the first separation test with AF-1 flown by Jason Shulze was conducted on Jun. 27, 2019; sixth separation test with AF-1 (pilot unspecified) was carried out on Nov. 7, 2019; first separation test from AF-6 flown by Major Chris ‘Beast’ Taylor was conducted on Nov. 25, 2019. Separation test #6 with AF-1 was carried out with F-35 AF-01 flown by Major Rachael “Banshee” Winiecki on Feb. 6, 2020. A more recent test with AF-6 was carried out on Apr. 2, 2020 (no additional detail can be gathered about this test).

With the integration of the B61-12, the “iconic nuclear fighter role, performed in the past by the F-15E and F-16, is being passed to the F-35A to play a future role in national security.” Other partner nations are slated to transfer the NATO nuclear role to the F-35A in the future.

sixth separation test with AF-1 (pilot unspecified) carried out on Nov. 7, 2019.

eparation test #6 with AF-1 was carried out with F-35 AF-01 flown by Major Rachael “Banshee” Winiecki on Feb. 6, 2020.

This separation test was carried out on Apr. 2, 2020.