US Army OOB

[MarkSheppard]

Linka

EADS North America selected to provide U.S. Army’s Light Utility Helicopter

UH-145 to be produced in Columbus, Mississippi

Arlington, Virginia, June 30, 2006 — EADS North America today announced that the EADS North America today announced that the UH-145 military helicopter has been selected by the U.S. Army as its next-generation Light Utility Helicopter (LUH). The LUH requirement is for up to 352 aircraft with a potential total program life-cycle value of $3 billion.

The LUH award is a continuation of EADS' 20-year heritage as a helicopter supplier to U.S. national and homeland security agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, DEA and the FBI. The decision, announced today by the U.S. Army, marks EADS North America’s first major system win as a prime contractor for the U.S. military.


"We're pleased that the UH-145 was chosen by the U.S. Army for this important mission and gratified that this selection demonstrates the service's confidence in our ability to meet the fast-paced delivery schedule and support requirements of these critical Army aircraft," said Ralph D. Crosby, Jr., EADS North America's Chairman and CEO. "We look forward to a long association with the U.S. Army....

[MarkSheppard]

F-35 JSF has been named the Lightning II

[MarkSheppard]

Linka

(Snipping the full article to a short version)

August 8, 2006: All future MLRS rockets will be "smart" (GPS guided), and older, unguided rockets, will be upgraded to "smart" status.

...

There have been no reliability problems with the GMLRS, which has a range of 70 kilometers and, because of the GPS guidance, it has the same accuracy at any range. Unguided rockets become less accurate the farther they go.

What makes the GMLRS most useful is not just its accuracy, which is about the same as air force JDAM GPS guided smart bombs, but because the 200 pound GMLRS warhead produces a smaller bang than the smallest JDAM (500 pounds). When it comes to urban fighting, smaller is better. Less collateral damage, and your troops can be closer to the target when the explosion occurs.

....

In order to get more GMLRS, all new MLRS production is being switched to GMLRS, and a retrofit kit, that will turn unguided MLRS rockets into GMLRS, has been introduced. The army believes that GMLRS will remain the most useful smart weapon, even with the introduction, later this year, of the hundred pound 155mm GPS guided Excalibur artillery shell, and the U.S. Air Force's 250 pound JDAM (the SDB, or small diameter bomb).

[MarkSheppard]

From a Defense Analyst friend: Stuart Slade

MTHEL is actually doing quite well. My understanding is that the pre-production systems are due to be deployed in 2009, only a year behind schedule. They were going to go to Korea but I guess Iraq is a better bet now.

Basically, battlefield lasers will arrive pretty soon (at least for the US)

This has some game engine implications for WinMBT. You can actually now shoot down artillery shells and rockets in flight; I don't know how you could represent this, except as a special "counterbattery" class which can intercept rockets, etc.

[pdoktar]

I don´t know about smaller is better in urban environments.. collateral damage will occur anyway, so bigger is better at blowing up buildings and stronpoints etc.

IMO Destroying whole buildings with large charges is the best way to proceed anyhow.

[Marcello]

"Basically, battlefield lasers will arrive pretty soon (at least for the US)

This has some game engine implications for WinMBT. You can actually now shoot down artillery shells and rockets in flight; I don't know how you could represent this, except as a special "counterbattery" class which can intercept rockets, etc."

Tentatively, what's the doctrine for it?
Is it supposed to protect some high value target from artillery shells which were going to fall too close to it?
Because I have an hard time trying to imagine such system coping with a decent BM-21 barrage, for example.

[whdonnelly]

Based on current news from Afghanistan and northern Israel, there is still a long way to go for anti-missile missile or radar systems.
But from what I understand of doctrine, aerial platforms would give the widest area coverage as an operational or strategic level asset.

[MarkSheppard]

Anyway, it will be interesting to see US Army employment of guided artillery in the next version of MBT; you'll have artillery with unpreceedented accuracy, and the targeted Hex will become known as the "hex of death"