Welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Here’s the news for the day.
Lockheed Martin's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System Defeats Ballistic Missile Target in Japanese Test
Source: Lockheed Martin
KAUAI, Hawaii --- JS Myoko, Japan's third destroyer equipped with Lockheed Martin's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system, successfully intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile target above the atmosphere during a test event today. The test marked the 20th successful ballistic missile intercept by the system.
JS Myoko guided a Standard Missile (SM)-3 Block IA missile to intercept the separating medium range ballistic missile target outside the Earth's atmosphere.
Two U.S. Navy Aegis BMD ships, USS Lake Erie and USS Paul Hamilton, also participated in today's test. USS Paul Hamilton tracked the target and performed a simulated engagement. USS Lake Erie, equipped with the next generation Aegis BMD Weapon System -- designated BMD 4.0.1, which provides additional target discrimination capability -- tracked the missile target and post-intercept debris using its advanced signal processor. Full operational certification of BMD 4.0.1 is expected in 2011.
"This is the first Aegis BMD flight test conducted with two versions of the U.S. Navy Aegis BMD baselines and a Japanese destroyer," said Orlando Carvalho, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin's Surface-Sea Based Missile Defense line of business. "These events demonstrate the Aegis development success of build a little, test a little, learn a lot as well as the flexibility of the systems to evolve and keep pace with the threat to control the battlespace."
The Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Navy are jointly developing Aegis BMD as part of the United States' Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). The Navy's independent operational test agent has assessed the Aegis BMD and SM-3 Block IA system to be operationally effective and operationally suitable. Currently, a total of 22 Aegis BMD-equipped warships -- 19 in the U.S. Navy and three in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force -- have the certified capability to engage ballistic missiles and perform long-range surveillance and tracking missions. Two additional U.S. East Coast-based Aegis-equipped ships are being modified to perform ballistic missile defense in the next six months.
The Aegis Weapon System is the world's premier naval defense system and the sea-based element of the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System. Its precision SPY-1 radar and integrated command and control system seamlessly guides the interceptor and uplinks target track information to the missile for terminal homing. Its ability to detect, track and engage targets ranging from sea-skimming cruise missiles to ballistic missiles in space is proven and unmatched. The Aegis BMD Weapon System also integrates with the BMDS, receiving track data from and providing track information to other BMDS elements.
The 92 Aegis-equipped ships currently in service around the globe have more than 950 years of at-sea operational experience and have launched more than 3,500 missiles in tests and real-world operations. In addition to the U.S. and Japan, Aegis is the maritime weapon system of choice for Australia, Norway, South Korea and Spain.
Lockheed Martin is a world leader in systems integration and the development of air and missile defense systems and technologies, including the first operational hit-to-kill missile defense system, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3). It also has considerable experience in interceptor systems; kill vehicles; battle management command, control and communications; precision pointing; and tracking optics, as well as radar and other sensors that enable signal processing and data fusion. The company makes significant contributions to nearly all major U.S. Missile Defense Systems and participates in several global missile defense partnerships.
Plan for the Future for the Emden Site: Purchase Contract Signed
Source: ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems
HAMBURG / EMDEN, Germany --- By signing the purchase contract by SIAG Schaaf Industrie AG on October 23, 2009, the basis to convert the Emden shipyard into a future-oriented, high-tech center for offshore technology for wind energy plants has been established. The legal change of ownership is expected to take place in early January 2010.
The newly established SIAG Nordseewerke GmbH of SIAG Schaaf Industrie AG will take up to 720 employees of the Emden site, including the apprentices.
“By signing the contract we have reached the basis to convert Nordseewerke into a future-oriented site. During the negotiations, priority has been given to permanently safeguard the jobs and to avoid the closing down of the site. Now, we all have to look forward and do our best to successfully restructure a yard - for the first time in the history of German shipbuilding - to serve a new future-oriented purpose”, said Reinhard Kuhlmann, Chairman of the Board of Management of TKMS Blohm + Voss Nordseewerke, at the end of the negotiations.
SIAG Nordseewerke will start to restructure the production facilities in the next few months so that components for offshore wind energy plants such as towers, machine and generator support structures, monopiles and foundation structures can be produced.
Rüdiger Schaaf, Chairman of the Executive Board of SIAG Schaaf Industrie AG, believes that by signing the contract an important step has been taken to safeguard both the industrial production facilities and the jobs in Emden. “In addition to the market leadership in onshore towers, the Emden site will now allow us to offer not only towers and machinery support structures but also underwater foundation structures for the offshore business. With the new site we are establishing the largest offshore tower production site in Europe and thus will have a decisive advantage over our competitors.”
Northrop Grumman Begins Producing First International F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
Source: Northrop Grumman Corp
PALMDALE, Calif. --- Northrop Grumman Corporation has begun producing the center fuselage for the first international F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, an F-35B short take off, vertical landing (STOVL) variant for the United Kingdom designated BK-1. The center fuselage is the core structure around which the F-35 aircraft is built.
The assembly process began Oct. 26 at the company's Palmdale Manufacturing Center with the loading of an all-composite air inlet duct into a special tooling structure called a jig. This first assembly process, one of approximately 18 major steps in assembling an F-35 center fuselage, consists of attaching metal frames around the duct. The frames serve to brace and position the duct properly within the center fuselage.
"Jig loading the BK-1 center fuselage for the United Kingdom's first F-35 demonstrates that the program is delivering on its promise to produce a fifth generation, multi-role fighter that meets the common air combat requirements of the U.S. and its allies," said Mark Tucker, vice president and F-35 program manager for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. "Through a disciplined approach to managing costs and engineering changes, we're continuing to reduce program risks, which will help the F-35 industry team put jets on the ramp on or before the initial operational need dates of our international partners."
Tucker noted that the company had started assembling the BK-1 center fuselage three days sooner than the date indicated by the F-35 program's master schedule.
Northrop Grumman is a principal and founding member of the F-35 industry team led by Lockheed Martin. To date, the company has delivered 25 center fuselages -- 19 for the system development and demonstration phase, six for the low rate initial production (LRIP) phases of the program. BK-1 is being produced as part of LRIP3. The program is scheduled to produce 138 F-35Bs for the United Kingdom.
Final assembly of all F-35 jets is performed by Lockheed Martin at a facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The process includes mating a Northrop Grumman-built center fuselage to an aft fuselage produced by BAE Systems, and the forward fuselage/cockpit and wings produced by Lockheed Martin.
Northrop Grumman is responsible for the design and production of center fuselages for all three variants of F-35 aircraft: conventional takeoff and landing; short takeoff, vertical landing; and the carrier variant. The F-35 Lightning II program expects to build more than 3,100 aircraft.
As a member of the F-35 global industry team, Northrop Grumman is central to the development, production and support of the F-35 Lightning II. The company designed and produces the aircraft's center fuselage, radar and other key avionics including electro-optical and communications subsystems; develops mission systems and mission-planning software; leads the team's development of pilot and maintenance training system courseware; and manages the team's use, support and maintenance of low-observable technologies.
Aircraft Carriers of World War II
Today’s website is the Aircraft Carriers of World War II. Color Pictures from National Archives Collection. Enjoy.
This Day in U.S. Naval History
1853 - USS Constitution seizes suspected slaver H. N. Gambrill.
1931 - Dirigible USS Los Angeles (ZR 3) makes 10-hour flight out of NAS Lakehurst, N.J., carrying 207 persons, establishing a new record for the number of passengers carried into the air by a single craft.
1943 - Battleship Oklahoma (BB 37), sunk at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, is refloated.
1956 - USS Cambria (APA 36) removes 24 members of United Nations Truce Commission team from the Gaza Strip.
1956 - USS Chilton (APA 38), USS Thuban (AKA 19), and USS Fort Snelling (LSD 30) evacuate more than 1,500 U.S. and foreign nationals from Egypt and Israel because of the fighting. 1961 - After Hurricane Hattie, helicopters from USS Antietam (CV 36) begin relief operations at British Honduras providing medical personnel, medical supplies, general supplies, and water.
Photo of the Day
USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) moored to USS Patoka (AO-9) off Panama during Fleet Problem XII, circa February 1931. Note line dropped from the airship's after section to the water.
Gator
