New toys

MBDA, the European defense contractor (part of their MIC, in other words) just announced a new variant on the venerable Exocet anti-ship missile. Sounds like a winner on paper.

“It features a doubled range in the class of 120km with a new turbojet engine, to regain the stand-off distance in anti-submarine warfare,” Pierre-Marie Bealleau, head of business development for deep strike missiles at MBDA, said.

Belleau added that the SM40 was designed solely to equip Naval Group-made submarines, which indicates that the two systems will share the same customer range established by the French shipbuilder globally.

The improved model incorporates J-band seeking (that’s microwaves in the 10-20GHz range – higher frequency usually means higher precision) and improved algorithms “for high density environments” which probably means better ability to distinguish the wheat from the chaff in a crowded combat zone.

While the new submarine-launched variant is tailored to defeat highly protected combat vessels and stealth targets, Belleau noted that it also features a land attack capability, “to defeat ship at harbor, for instance.”

Similarly to its predecessor, the SM40 also uses the same launch method: a propelled and guided underwater vehicle. The missile is housed in the vehicle and is ejected once it breaks the water surface at a low altitude. Defense News

Sounds like a nasty piece of work; let’s hope its users stay on our side. Sometimes they don’t, though.

Worth noting – the announcement was timed to coincide with marking the production of the 4,000th Exocet off the line – that is a LOT of missiles, even over its 40 year run. Might remember the original ones caused the Brits a bit of grief in the Falklands, and an Iraqi Exocet is what hit the USS Stark.

Moving onto the domestic front, the news is not  as good. In the era of billion dollar aircraft, someone is finally asking if we can afford a battle fleet of zillion buckadingdong planes with unobtanium armor – and the answer isn’t good.

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall made deeply concerning pronouncements about the state of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative, as well as the Next Generation Air Refueling System (NGAS) effort, at the Airlift/Tanker Association’s (ATA) annual symposium last Friday. The Air Force’s sixth-generation combat jet program, also referred to as the NGAD or Penetrating Counter-Air (PCA) ‘platform,’ and its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drone program, sit under the larger NGAD umbrella.

Kendall said during a keynote address at the ATA gathering. “We are actually looking hard at the combination of the Next Generation Air Dominance platform, the Increment Two uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft, and the Next Generation Aerial Refueling System, all in an Agile Combat Employment context.”

Buzzword Bingo, anyone?

“These three potential new designs and platforms are all tied together, both operationally and from an affordability perspective. We are working through a sprint of about four months of effort to determine the best combination of capabilities to pursue at various investment levels,” Kendall continued in his keynote. “The variable that concerns me most as we go through this analysis and produce a range of alternatives is going to be [the availability of adequate resources.] … to pursue any combination of those new designs.”

“Right now, given our commitments, our resources, and strategic priorities, it’s hard for me to see how we can afford any combination of those new designs,” Kendall added bluntly.The War Zone

‘WAY more detail in the article – but essentially he sees cuts from 1000 drones to 100, trying to cost-reduce projected $300,000,000 planes significantly… we can dream ’em up, we can build ’em, but can we AFFORD to?  Worth going through in detail.

One of the all time great science fiction writers, Arthur C. Clark, penned a story called “Superiority” about using high-tech in a war.  It’s the first story, only a few pages, in the free anthology here.

Take a few minutes and tell me if it sounds familiar…

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Air Force, WTF?