Must Read fra The War Zone

 Klikk på hver enkelt artikkel og de dukker opp i sin orginale form. (Red.)

April 11, 2024

 

The U.S. Navy wants its future fleets of carrier-capable drone wingmen to be made up of designs that cost no more than $15 million to buy and have zero long-term sustainment costs. These uncrewed aircraft would be "consumable," ending their relatively short service lives, which will be measured in hundreds of flight hours rather than years, as one-way kamikaze drones or flying targets for use in training or testing. You can read more about the Navy’s plans for its future Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drone force here.   Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin unveiled the Mako, a previously unseen air-launched hypersonic missile, at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space 2024 exposition in Maryland this week. The weapon, which Lockheed is pitching to the U.S. Navy and Air Force, was originally developed for the Air Force’s Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW) program. It reflects the growing interest in more affordable hypersonic strike weapons, which are smaller and less complex than hypersonic cruise missiles but still offer a degree of standoff range and very rapid response. The company also sees potential scope for the Mako to arm submarines and surface warships. You can read everything we know about the Mako here.   Make sure to check out highlights of all our coverage from the last week below. We are also continuing our rolling coverage of the conflict in Ukraine as it develops.    -- Oliver Parken The War Zone F/A-18 Super Hornets Now Flying With Four AIM-9Xs From USS Eisenhower To Counter Drones Just a day after we broke the news that the Navy had cleared Super Hornets to carry Sidewinders under their wings, images show them doing so. Rolling Airframe Missiles To Arm Arleigh Burke Destroyer Fleet New point defenses, which come amid growing missile and drone threats, are just one Navy modernization effort for the Arleigh Burke class. Four Stealthy AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles Flew Together In “Historic” Test Two F/A-18E/F Super Hornets fired the quartet of AGM-158C missiles, a reflection of how these weapons would be employed in actual combat. Bizarre ‘Turtle Tank’ Appears In Ukraine With Shell Covering It Nearly Completely We have never seen a ‘cope cage’ like this, which is basically a steel shed built around the tank. The Compelling Case For Arming U.S. Navy Warships With Drone Swarms Adding dozens of small, long-range drones to Navy ships would drastically enhance strike, ISR, networking, and defensive capabilities. Navy EA-18G Growlers Get AIM-9X, Super Hornets Can Now Carry More Sidewinders Adding additional AIM-9X Sidewinder capacity to Navy fast jets was in response to an urgent need to take down Houthi drones. Manta Ray High-Endurance Underwater Drone Unveiled The testbed that mimics its namesake is designed to help DARPA hone its requirements for a new class of multi-mission submersible drones. From the Archive The B-2’s Little-Known GAM Weapon Was The First Satellite-Guided Bomb Urgently developed after the Cold War, the pioneering GPS Aided Munition would prove its value when the B-2 went to war over Yugoslavia. Hot Shots Airmen assigned to the 34th Fighter Squadron and Fighter Generation Squadron perform pre-flight checks on F-35A Lightning IIs during an agile combat employment exercise at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, March 28, 2024. A rolling airframe missile (RAM) launcher fires a RIM-116 missile from the Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during a live-fire exercise, Pacific Ocean, April 9. 2024. Marines participate in a bilateral landing during Iron Fist at Kin Blue Beach Training Area, Okinawa, Japan, March 12, 2024.