June 2015

The US Navy: Carriers Still Forge the Way

With the US Navy due to accept its newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), in March 2016, reports have surfaced that the service has also ordered the second carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), as well as placing a down payment for the third carrier in the Ford-class, the USS Enterprise (CVN-80).

Gerald R. Ford is intended to be the first of a class of aircraft carriers that offer significant performance improvements over the previous Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Gerald R. Ford is equipped with an AN/SPY-3 active electronically scanned array multi-function radar, and an island that is shorter in length and 20 feet (6.1 m) taller than that of the Nimitz-class; it is set 140 feet (43 m) further aft and 3 feet (0.91 m) closer to the edge of the ship. Replacing traditional steam catapults, the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) will launch all carrier aircraft. This innovation eliminates the traditional requirement to generate and store steam, freeing up considerable below-deck square footage. With this EMALS innovation, Gerald R. Ford can accomplish 25% more aircraft launches per day than the Nimitz-class and requires 25% fewer crew members. The Navy estimates it will save $4 billion in operating costs over a 50-year lifespan.

Accord to Bloomberg Business, “The Pentagon’s top weapons buyer has approved awarding Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. a contract valued at as much as $4 billion to start building the second in the new Ford class of aircraft carriers.

Frank Kendall issued a decision memo for the Navy to proceed with detailed design and construction of the USS John F. Kennedy and make a down payment on the third carrier in the $42.8 billion program. The memo, signed on Wednesday evening, was obtained by Bloomberg News.”

Unfortunately, some shortcomings have come to light regarding the capabilities of the new carrier. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the launching and landing systems on the Ford would place extra stress on aircraft, precluding the external fuel tanks needed for combat missions.

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Are We in a State of War with the Russians and Chinese?

Earlier today, it was announced that the Chinese government was responsible for a massive breach of the Office of Personnel Management, hacking the files of four million current and former federal employees.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLA_Unit_61398

Earlier this year, sources claim that the Russians were purportedly behind a hack of the Internal Revenue Service, also affecting several thousand US individuals. http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/04/politics/federal-agency-hacked-personnel-management/index.html

If memory serves us correctly, these types of overt acts are nothing short of sabotage and, in the past, led to the start of shooting wars. Witness the attack on the battleship Maine on February 15th, 1898, which led to the start of the Spanish-American War. Whether or not we are launching cyber-counterattacks to combat these regularly occurring incidents is anyone’s guess but it is becoming clear that there are governments that are willing to do anything to subvert our system.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Shady_RAT

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Does South Korea Have the Bomb?

Although South Korea’s nuclear weapons research program effectively ended on April 23, 1975, with its ratification of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, reports indicate that they indeed may have the bomb. According to several news sources, South Korea on Wednesday successfully test-fired a domestically built ballistic missile that can hit all of North Korea, amid continuing animosity between the rivals over the North’s push to bolster its nuclear and missile capabilities. The missile purportedly has a range of 500-miles, meaning it could strike any target within North Korea. Earlier this year, North Korea test fired its own ICBM from a submerged submarine, indicating that the missile could reach as far as the west coast of the United States, although its not clear if the missile’s guidance system is as sophisticated as they claim.

Its hard to imagine a scenario where the country would develop, test and field a missile with this type of range and targeting capability if it wasn’t tipped with an atomic device and instead carry conventional weaponry. Where this weapons race will lead is anyone’s guess, with a potential nuclear exchange between the two countries coming about in a matter of a few minutes.

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From GCV to FFV: Still Alive and Kicking

When the Pentagon cancelled the proposed Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) it wasn’t at all clear what they had up their sleeve or intended to replace the aging Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle. According to Defense News, “the Army has awarded two contracts of more than $28 million each to BAE Systems Land and Armaments and General Dynamics Land Systems to develop design concepts for the FFV. The work is due Nov. 28, 2016.”

“As the original equipment manufacturer for the Bradley fighting vehicle, we have a unique understanding of the requirements and user needs,” Mitchell said. “Among our top considerations will be platform weight and program affordability as we balance overall performance,” said BAE spokeswoman Megan Mitchell.

Whatever design is chosen, it will likely one day have to go toe-to-toe with two of Russia’s latest pair of infantry fighting vehicles: the BMD-4 (Boyevaya Mashina Desanta-4 literally “Combat Vehicle of the Airborne”) and BTR-MD Rakushka (“Shell”), both currently being distributed to Russia’s growing airborne arm.

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“Screwtops”: Hobby Master Earns its Day in the Sun

Well, the first pix are in for Hobby Master’s forthcoming E-2C Hawkeye Advanced Early Warning Aircraft. Frankly, we think even the critics will be overcome with emotion, based upon the colorful motif and painstaking detail that has obviously gone into the making of this model.

Their first take on the Hawkeye is based upon a plane that flew with VAW-123 “Screwtops”, then embarked upon the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), as it conducted a tour of duty through the Atlantic Ocean, during October 2005 (#HA4801).

Cleared for takeoff in July, it looks like Air Force 1 will have its hands full trying to top this “screwtop”.

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The Motor Pool’s Grand Re-Opening Sale

Presently, we are still on track to launch our site-wide Grand Re-Opening this Wednesday, June 10th. To mark the occasion, we will be kicking things off with a multi-day, 25% Off Grand Re-Opening Sale, which will only be good for items listed as being in stock. This sale will not include existing orders, pre-orders, back orders or special order merchandise, so it is important that your order meets this criteria to qualify for the discount. Non-qualifying items will either be deleted from the order or the order will be cancelled outright. This will be a first come, first served sale, so it is entirely possible that we could run out of merchandise in quick fashion and will not replenish the item(s) to meet the discount. In other words, no rain checks. The sale, as it now stands, will begin on Wednesday June 10th and end promptly on Sunday, June 21st, at 12AM PST. Enter code “NewStore” in the coupon box at checkout to redeem this sales discount. Should the store not be ready in time for the sale, we will alter the start and finish dates for the sale accordingly.

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Meet the B-3: The USAF’s New Long-Range Strike Bomber

From a purely alpha-numeric stand point, the USAF is already well along in the design and development of its next long-range strike bomber (LRS-B), the B-3. In fact, right about now they are comparing the blueprints for both the Northrop-Grumman design as well as the one submitted by the competing Lockheed Martin-Boeing team, mulling over the proposed costs, military-industrial implications, capabilities of its adversaries and other factors to come up with the replacement for both the aging B-52 and B-1 bombers.

Slated to be about half the size of a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and likely propelled by two F135 jet engines that power the F-35 joint strike fighter, the USAF’s LRS-B is scheduled to enter service in the mid-2020s, and therefore must meet the Air Force’s requirements for at least the next twenty years. Range, low observability, payload carrying capability, targeting and avoidance systems are fundamental to the new design, which some believe will resemble a smaller version of the B-2 and not entirely unlike a drone on steroids.

The LRS-B would likely be fitted with the soon-to-be deployed HELLADS (High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System). HELLADS can take down missiles, rockets and artillery shells without having to pause between shots to cool down – a problem associated with laser beam weaponry in the past. The HELLADS has a built in cooling system that allows it to fire rapidly in high intensity situations. It is still in testing, but estimates suggest that this game changing piece of defense weaponry will be in use within the next five years. A laser weapons system isn’t entirely out of the question either.

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Oxford Graduates from Flying School

As college students by the thousands are graduating from university, it makes sense that Oxford would cash in on the educational theme, if you can call it that. As part of their ever-expanding History of Flight Collection, this British-based model maker intends to bring out a Percival Proctor radio trainer and communication aircraft for the new semester. Not an aircraft that instantly springs to mind amongst the aviation community, the Proctor is, nonetheless, an important aircraft within RAF circles, since it was developed from the Percival Vega Gull in response to Air Ministry Specification 20/38 for a radio trainer and communications aircraft. To meet the requirement, the aircraft based on the Vega Gull had larger rear cabin windows and the fuselage was six inches longer. Modifications were made to the seats to enable the crew to wear parachutes, and other changes to enable a military radio and other equipment to be fitted. In early 1939 an order was placed for 247 aircraft to meet operational requirement OR.65.

Other new air and ground units were also announced by Oxford, so it may take another day or so before they are all up on our site.

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Eaglemoss Puts Four More Vessels to Sea

Earlier today, we learned that four more Eaglemoss warships are pegged for an early June release. The four newbies include Imperial Japanese Navy Nagato Class Battleship – Mutsu (@EMGC13), Imperial Japanese Navy Tone Class Heavy Cruiser – Tone (#EMGC24), Imperial Japanese Navy Zuiho Class Light Aircraft Carrier – Zuiho (#EMGC29), and German Kriegsmarine Deutschland Class Heavy Cruiser – SMS Admiral Graf Spee (#EMGC40). All will likely sell out fast, each covering important subject matter and packed in their traditional bookcase packaging including a full-color magazine.

As an aside, we will not be stocking any of the warships in the series that come simply in the clam shell packaging without the accompanying literature or box. We have just a couple of the German U-Boats left in stock, so if you’re interested, now would be a good time to jump on them.

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The Aircraft Carrier – No Longer the White Elephant in the Room

Ever since the dawning of the nuclear age, pundits have long claimed that the aircraft carrier has seen its due, a product of a bygone era that is no longer capable of defending itself against a litany of threats. If that were indeed true, then perhaps someone should discuss these conclusions with the Peoples Republic of China, Japan, India and Thailand, all of whom now posses an aircraft carrier of one sort or another.

While China is utilizing its first carrier, more-or-less, as a training platform and testbed for future aircraft designs such as the Shenyang J-31, they are currently building a more straightforward design, which includes the use of a catapult system and angled flight decks, and slated to get underway before 2020.

Other countries in the Pacific Rim and southern Asia are also seeking to expand their own capabilities despite the cost of building and operating a carrier. Like China, India has purchased an older Soviet Union-era aircraft carrier to serve as their operational fleet air arm, while quietly developing their own indigenous fleet of aircraft-carrying warships. Likewise, Japan, still prevented in part by its constitution to project power overseas, can transition its pair of carriers from carrying helicopters to US-made F-35B joint strike fighters.

Thailand still remains a bit of a mystery in the aircraft carrier equation, possessing a smaller and less capable warship bereft of any aircraft, due, in large part, to funding shortfalls. And, with Russia continuing to flex its muscles and threaten its neighbors around the world, it is perhaps only a matter of time before they get back into the aircraft carrier game with an entirely new design.

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