“We Aren’t Slaves”: Erdogan Says Russian S-400s A “Done Deal”, Hints At Future S-500 Upgrade

S-500 Air Defense System, which Erdogan said Turkey could upgrade to in the future, in defiance on Washington. Image via Military and Commercial Technology blog

 

“This is over” — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this week as US Congress continues discussion and debate on holding up delivery of Lockheed-produced F-35 stealth jets purchased previously by Turkey due to Ankara’s intent to receive Russian S-400 anti-air defense systems from Russia.

U.S. Air Force seeks sharp growth to stay ahead of China, Russia

U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 20th Fighter Wing, Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., taxi upon landing at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, U.S. seeking shelter from Hurricane Florence in this September 12, 2018 handout photo. Senior Airman Isaiah J. Soliz/U.S. Air Force/Handout via REUTERS

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Air Force is predicting it will need to grow sharply over the next decade or so, boosting the number of operational squadrons by nearly a quarter to stay ahead of increasingly muscular militaries in China and Russia, officials said.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told reporters that the preliminary analysis drew partly from classified intelligence about possible threats in the 2025 to 2030 time frame, showing that the service, at its current size, would be unable to preserve America’s edge.”The Air Force is too small for what the nation is asking us to do,” Wilson told a small group of reporters ahead of a speech on Monday that will lay out her arguments.

Air Force Doubles Down on Hypersonic Weapons Development with 2nd Contract

High Speed Strike Weapon (Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin)

 

The U.S. Air Force has awarded a second contract to develop a new hypersonic weapon that would move five times the speed of sound.

The service on Monday awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. a contract — not to exceed $480 million — to begin designing a second hypersonic prototype, according to a release.

“We are going to go fast and leverage the best technology available to get hypersonic capability to the warfighter as soon as possible,” said Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson.

Lockheed Martin Awarded $929 Million Contract For Hypersonic Weapon To Counter Russia, China

 

Lockheed Martin, the defense company behind F-35A Lightning II, a fifth-generation combat aircraft, won a $928 million contract April 18 to develop a hypersonic missile for the U.S. Air Force that will travel more than five times faster than the speed of sound to overcome Russian and Chinese missile defense systems.

According to Lockheed Martin, under the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, the company will design and manufacture the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW), a new air-launched weapon system. The missile will be capable of speeds higher than Mach five and could render Russian and Chinese ballistic missile defense interceptors useless.

U.S. Military Set To Deploy THAAD Anti-Missile System In Germany

 

The United States is looking to establish a powerful missile shield in Germany in a potential move that would further inflame tensions with both Moscow and Tehran.

Though NATO has long insisted that its missile defense systems are not directed at Russia, the Kremlin has repeatedly condemned what it sees as NATO encroachment in Eastern Europe, especially after countries like Romania — which is not engaged in any ongoing conflict with Russia — have recently installed their own US-supplied ballistic missile systems, with renewed multi-billion dollar Patriot missile expansions to follow.

Exclusive: Pentagon evaluating U.S. West Coast missile defense sites – officials

FILE PHOTO: A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched during a successful intercept test, in this undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency. U.S. Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency/Handout via Reuters/File Photo

 

SIMI VALLEY, Calif (Reuters) – The U.S. agency tasked with protecting the country from missile attacks is scouting the West Coast for places to deploy new anti-missile defenses, two Congressmen said on Saturday, as North Korea’s missile tests raise concerns about how the United States would defend itself from an attack.

West Coast defenses would likely include Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missiles, similar to those deployed in South Korea to protect against a potential North Korean attack.

The accelerated pace of North Korea’s ballistic missile testing program in 2017 and the likelihood the North Korean military could hit the U.S. mainland with a nuclear payload in the next few years has raised the pressure on the United States government to build-up missile defenses.

Fighter jets with laser weapons set to take to the skies in 2021 as Lockheed Martin wins $26 million ‘Lance’ high-energy laser contract

 

• ‘LANCE’ contract will build on technology from the Athena and Aladin lasers
• $26.3m contract aims to design, develop, and produce system for fighter jets
• An airborne platform is smaller, presenting more of a challenge, experts say

Lockheed Martin is working to develop a high-power fiber laser for fighter jets.

Under a $26.3 million contract from the Air Force Research Lab, the firm will design and produce a directed energy system for aircraft, with plans to test the technology by 2021.

If the Iran Nuclear Deal Collapses, Iranian Hackers Will Target These U.S. Companies

 

If the Iran nuclear deal fails, U.S. companies will suffer never-before-seen security breaches thanks to Tehran’s “hacker army.”

This particular cyber militia has been honing its skills and expanding since 2013. That’s when then-Iranian President Hassan Rouhani increased the country’s cybersecurity spending 12-fold, Business Insider reported in 2015. Rouhani allocated roughly $19.8 million to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Tehran’s military) to up its cyber capabilities.

Germany to deepen military ties with France, others: sources

A German soldier holds NATO flag during a ceremony to welcome the German battalion being deployed to Lithuania as part of NATO deterrence measures against Russia in Rukla, Lithuania February 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

 

Germany will move forward this week with plans to set up a joint fleet of Lockheed Martin Corp C-130J transport planes with France and join a Netherlands-led fleet of Airbus A330 tanker planes, defense ministry sources said on Monday.

Those and several other initiatives with Norway, Romania and the Czech Republic are part of a broader drive to expand European defense cooperation to be announced at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, the sources said.

US Dispatches F-22 Stealth Fighters to Intercept Syrian Aircraft

An F-22 Raptor from the 43rd Fighter Squadron takes off in Savannah, Ga., during Sentry Savannah 16-3, Aug. 2, 2016. The F-22 is a fifth-generation, single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the U.S. Air Force. (Photo by Solomon Cook/U.S. Air Force)

 

The U.S. military on Friday dispatched two F-22 Raptors stealth fighter jets to intercept a pair of Syrian Su-24 Fencer aircraft that flew in the vicinity of Hasakah, Syria, according to news accounts citing an unnamed Pentagon official.

The American pilots of the fifth-generation fighters made by Lockheed Martin Corp. tried to radio the Syrian pilots but didn’t receive a response, according to CNN’s Barbara Starr.

Unresponsive Satellite Can’t Be Fixed or Recovered: Air Force

Another Pentagon satellite has been lost to space.

That’s the conclusion of the U.S. Air Force, which recently investigated what went wrong with the newest weather satellite in the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.

Russia Touts Drone Swarms and Electromagnetic Cannon for Sixth-Gen Fighter

Meanwhile, America is has 419 deficiencies with it’s 5th generation fighter jets.

 

The Sukhoi T-50 is the prototype for Sukhoi PAK FA fifth-generation stealth fighter jet slated to enter service in the Russian Air Force in late 2016 or early 2017. (Getty Images)

 

Vladimir Mikheev, an adviser to the deputy head of Radioelectronic Technologies Concern — part of the Moscow-based state corporation Rostec — this week said the aircraft will be unveiled in 2025, fly a speeds of up to March 4 or 5 and reach near space, according to an article on RT, citing another Russian news agency TASS.

It will also allow a pilot to command between five and 10 nearby drone aircraft — interestingly, with their number and task dependent on the operator’s rank, the article states.

Chinese Man Pleads Guilty to Stealing US Military Aircraft Data

A Chinese man has pleaded guilty in a “years-long” conspiracy to hack into U.S. networks to steal sensitive information, including data on the C-17 cargo plane and fighter jet aircraft, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Su Bin, also known as Stephen Su and Stephen Subin, 50, a citizen and resident of the People’s Republic of China, pleaded guilty to the crime in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, according to a press release from the department.

F-35 Stealth Fighter Still Has 419 ‘Deficiencies,’ Manager Says

The head of the U.S. Defense Department’s F-35 program said the number of “deficiencies” in the stealth fighter jet’s hardware and software is decreasing but that hundreds of technical challenges remain.

Speaking to reporters last week in his offices in Arlington, Virginia, Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan discussed a range of issues affecting the Pentagon’s biggest weapons program at nearly $400 billion, including the hundreds of lingering deficiency reports, or DRs, known as “technical debt” in acquisition parlance.

“There are 419 things that we have yet to decide with the war fighters how we’re going to fix them, whether we’re going to fix them and when we’re going to fix them,” he said. The figure was three times higher a few years ago and “we think the technical debt that we have — the deficiencies that we have — are things that we can handle … within the next two years,” he said.

China to Fly FC-31 Stealth Fighter by 2019: Reports

A model of the China’s FC-31 stealth fighter is displayed abroad for the first time at the 14th Dubai Airshow in the United Arab Emirates on Nov. 8, 2015. (China Radio International photo)

 

A year after unveiling the FC-31 stealth fighter, Chinese officials say a production version of the fifth-generation aircraft — the country’s answer to the American-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — will fly by 2019, according to multiple news reports.

Li Yuhai, deputy general manager at China’s Aviation Industry Corp., known as Avic, and Lin Peng, the FC-31’s chief designer, were on hand at the Dubai Airshow this week to talk about the program.