Author: Michael

Former F-16 pilot criticizes Russian tactics and Su-35 technology as US F-16s are upgraded in South Korea.
F-16 Modernization in South Korea
The US Air Force’s F-16 Fighting Falcons in South Korea are being modernized with upgraded radar and avionics systems. The update seeks to increase the lethality and survivability of these fighters in current and future missions.

The modernization includes the addition of the APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) with an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) and Central Display Unit (CDU).

After an unsuccesful all-up-round prototype test in March, the Air Force decided to scrap its procurement plans for the Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) and focus its efforts on another weapon — the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM). While both of the programs are hypersonics efforts, experts noted that there are key differences between the two types of systems that point to how each of the services are prioritizing their procurement efforts to match their operational requirements.
Hypersonic systems are able to travel faster than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

Sierra Nevada Corporation

The U.S. Air Force says it has accelerated work to integrate Raytheon’s AN/APQ-187 Silent Knight terrain-following/terrain avoidance radar onto its MC-130J Commando II special operations transport/tanker aircraft. This has come amid the retirement of the Commando II’s predecessor, the MC-130H Combat Talon II, with its highly specialized AN/APQ-170 radar.

A jamming system that will provide F-16 fighter jets increased capability against modern threats recently completed U.S. Air Force Laboratory Intelligence Validated Emulator (LIVE) testing, marking the first time it underwent ultra-wideband testing, the manufacturer announced Tuesday.
The AN/ALQ-257 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite (IVEWS), made by Northrop Grumman, provides digital radar warning receiver performance and active jamming capability in an internal suite to keep the F-16 operationally viable beyond 2046, according to fiscal 2024 Air Force budget documents.

U.S. Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly, commander of Air Combat Command, presents the Distinguished Flying Cross to Master Sgt. Zachary Cooper, during the 363d Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Wing Commander’s Leadership Summit, March 28, 2023 at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va. (U.S. Air Force photo).

The battlefield is a chaotic and complicated environment. That’s true on the ground, and high in the sky above, where Air Force Tactical Systems Operators (TSOs) are often engaged in providing command and control and helping manage assets for the fight.

Heavy fog covers a sign at the front of the base entrance at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota (Airman Alysa Knott/U.S. Air Force).

Airman 1st Class Justin Rutledge said he was shocked a little more than a week ago when racist graffiti was spray painted on the garage door of his duplex home on Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota.
Video of the graffiti that has been shared on social media shows the swastikas and racial epithets that were crudely drawn on the garage door with black spray paint. Rutledge said his neighbor’s garage door and car were also vandalized.

Lockheed Martin

Defense officials in Romania say they plan to buy the U.S.-made F-35 stealth fighter as part of a major overhaul of their air force. Romania becomes the latest NATO member, and the latest in Eastern Europe, to opt for the Joint Strike Fighter. It’s move almost certainly driven not only by the desire for greater integration within the alliance but also by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — with which Romania shares a 400-mile border — last year.
A U.S.

Ukrainian Soldier in Remains of an Old Curch

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According to Russian officials, at least 75 percent of the ruined city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region is under the control of Russian forces. The announcement follows months of intense fighting in the strategic area, with the Russian paramilitary group, Wagner, going so far as to raise its flag along with a Russian flag over the rubble of government buildings in Bakhmut’s city center last week.

An artist’s rendering of a B-52 carrying Lockheed Martin’s AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon. (Lockheed Martin)
The US Air Force (USAF) will likely end its efforts to operationalise the Lockheed Martin AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) following a 13 March test failure. Although the test failure marks the first of the all-up round, three component flight test failures in 2021 led to speculation about the programme’s future.
The USAF said on 24 March that the test launch “met several objectives,” but provided no further information.

In 2019, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the US Department of Defense (DoD) conduct a comprehensive assessment of the effect of their contract financing and profit policies on the defence industry.
Accordingly, the DoD launched a comprehensive Defense Contract Finance Study (DCFS) at the end of 2019 to assess defence industry financial performance over a twenty-year timeframe. The DoD has now released their DCFS findings on 10 April 2023.