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VMETRO to support F-35 program
Published: May 16, 2008 at 9:07 PM
HOUSTON, May 16 (UPI) -- VMETRO announced it has been contracted by Lockheed Martin to support the U.S. Defense Department's next-generation strike fighter F-35 Lightning II program. -
Navy contracts BAE for TCDL tech
Published: May 16, 2008 at 9:07 PM
WAYNE, N.J., May 16 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy says it has contracted BAE Systems for tactical common data link technology to provide pilots with real-time sensor and targeting information. -
South African army to get wireless tech
Published: May 16, 2008 at 9:05 PM
JERICHO, N.Y., May 16 (UPI) -- Saab Grintek Communications has contracted Telephonics for wireless intercommunication technology in support of a deal with the South African army.
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Analysis: European defense contracts
Published: May 16, 2008 at 10:15 PM
By LEANDER SCHAERLAECKENS
UPI Correspondent
BRUSSELS, May 16 (UPI) -- Patria could lose Slovenian deal to bribery charges; Italian training aircraft for Philippines; Estonia opens cyberterrorism center and looks to purchase field artillery -
BMD Watch: Japan changes space policy
Published: May 16, 2008 at 9:35 PM
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- The Japanese Parliament Tuesday formally agreed to permit the deployment of space surveillance satellites as part of the country's ballistic missile defense program. -
Analysis: China boosts Jiangxi air defense
Published: May 16, 2008 at 9:10 PM
By ANDREI CHANG
HONG KONG, May 16 (UPI) -- China's air force has substantially reinforced its air defense posture in Jiangxi province in the past year. There are indications that China has completed its second-line air defense operational deployment against Taiwan centered on Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. This has greatly expanded the depth of China's air defense coverage. -
Outside View: Russia at war -- Part 1
Published: May 16, 2008 at 12:07 PM
By ILYA KRAMNIK
UPI Outside View Commentator
MOSCOW, May 16 (UPI) -- The scale of the armies engaged, the casualties suffered and inflicted on both sides, and the number of weapons systems deployed in the conflict between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany dwarfed all other theaters of World War II and all conflicts since then. -
Analysis: China copter deal -- Part 3
Published: May 15, 2008 at 7:16 PM
By MARTIN SIEFF
WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- Russia's landmark sale of transport helicopter assembly kits to be assembled in China could point the way to a vastly larger transformation in global arms production. -
Outside View: Georgia civil war -- Part 2
Published: May 15, 2008 at 12:13 PM
By ILYA KRAMNIK
UPI Outside View Commentator
MOSCOW, May 15 (UPI) -- Georgia's officer corps is said to be riddled with corruption, there are no trained sergeants, only about 50 percent of the nation's military equipment is operational, and coordinated operations in adverse conditions are impossible.
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Defense Focus: Subs vs. carriers -- Part 1
Published: April 8, 2008 at 6:43 PM
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, April 8 (UPI) -- "The bigger they are the harder they fall" is a principle that doesn't just work in heavyweight boxing; it also applies to nuclear-powered aircraft carriers faced with swarms of attacking diesel-powered submarines.
The myth that gigantic, 80,000 ton nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carriers are unsinkable is not believed by any serious naval officer or analyst, but it has become a deeply ingrained assumption in the American public consciousness, including among most senators, congressmen and their staffs on Capitol Hill.
This is in large part because neither the United States nor Britain has lost a major fleet aircraft carrier in action since the first half of World War II. During World War II, the United States did not lose a single one of its more than 40 fast Essex-class aircraft carriers to enemy action.
This was in part due to the extraordinarily inept and passive combat operations record of the Japanese submarine force, in striking contrast to the magnificent gallantry and operational skill of Japan's aircraft carrier-based striking arm, and the cruisers and destroyers of the Imperial Navy's surface forces.
But the main reason was that Essex-class carriers were fast and Japanese submarines operating in the Pacific Ocean were slow. The USS Yorktown at the Battle of Midway in 1942 and the British aircraft carriers Ark Royal and Eagle operating off the coasts of Europe in 1941 and 1942 were both sunk by torpedoes fired by German U-boats.
The fact that no U.S. aircraft carrier has been seriously threatened in combat in any of the wars the United States has fought since 1945 has added to the mystique of the carrier admirals. They continue to dominate the Navy, greatly influencing its procurement decisions to this day. And arguably, in the 21st century, the political power and prestige of the carrier admirals is greater than ever.
The presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States this year is Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a heroic carrier combat pilot during the Vietnam War and the son and grandson of U.S. Navy admirals. His grandfather in fact commanded one of the U.S. Navy's main carrier strike forces against Imperial Japan in the closing months of World War II.
However, the real reason none of America's magnificent aircraft carriers has faced serious threat over the past 60 years is for the very good reason that the United States has never fought any war during all that time in which they faced any enemy with significant naval forces.
North Korea and the People's Republic of China did not have them during the Korean War of 1950-53, and North Vietnam did not have them during the Vietnam War, where major U.S. ground forces were committed from 1965 to 1972. In neither of the Gulf wars -- in 1991 and 2003 -- did Iraq have significant naval or anti-ship air launched weapons systems with which it could threaten U.S. aircraft carriers operating in the Persian Gulf or the Indian Ocean.
Through the Cold War, the only naval force in the world capable of potentially sinking U.S. aircraft carriers by hostile action was the Soviet navy from the late-1960s on. Even today, that threat is not widely understood, yet it greatly influenced Chinese naval planners who have developed 21st century asymmetrical responses to threaten U.S. carrier battle groups currently operating in the Western Pacific Ocean.
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Next: How aircraft carriers became vulnerable
UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, April 8 (UPI) -- "The bigger they are the harder they fall" is a principle that doesn't just work in heavyweight boxing; it also applies to nuclear-powered aircraft carriers faced with swarms of attacking diesel-powered submarines.
The myth that gigantic, 80,000 ton nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carriers are unsinkable is not believed by any serious naval officer or analyst, but it has become a deeply ingrained assumption in the American public consciousness, including among most senators, congressmen and their staffs on Capitol Hill.
This is in large part because neither the United States nor Britain has lost a major fleet aircraft carrier in action since the first half of World War II. During World War II, the United States did not lose a single one of its more than 40 fast Essex-class aircraft carriers to enemy action.
This was in part due to the extraordinarily inept and passive combat operations record of the Japanese submarine force, in striking contrast to the magnificent gallantry and operational skill of Japan's aircraft carrier-based striking arm, and the cruisers and destroyers of the Imperial Navy's surface forces.
But the main reason was that Essex-class carriers were fast and Japanese submarines operating in the Pacific Ocean were slow. The USS Yorktown at the Battle of Midway in 1942 and the British aircraft carriers Ark Royal and Eagle operating off the coasts of Europe in 1941 and 1942 were both sunk by torpedoes fired by German U-boats.
The fact that no U.S. aircraft carrier has been seriously threatened in combat in any of the wars the United States has fought since 1945 has added to the mystique of the carrier admirals. They continue to dominate the Navy, greatly influencing its procurement decisions to this day. And arguably, in the 21st century, the political power and prestige of the carrier admirals is greater than ever.
The presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States this year is Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a heroic carrier combat pilot during the Vietnam War and the son and grandson of U.S. Navy admirals. His grandfather in fact commanded one of the U.S. Navy's main carrier strike forces against Imperial Japan in the closing months of World War II.
However, the real reason none of America's magnificent aircraft carriers has faced serious threat over the past 60 years is for the very good reason that the United States has never fought any war during all that time in which they faced any enemy with significant naval forces.
North Korea and the People's Republic of China did not have them during the Korean War of 1950-53, and North Vietnam did not have them during the Vietnam War, where major U.S. ground forces were committed from 1965 to 1972. In neither of the Gulf wars -- in 1991 and 2003 -- did Iraq have significant naval or anti-ship air launched weapons systems with which it could threaten U.S. aircraft carriers operating in the Persian Gulf or the Indian Ocean.
Through the Cold War, the only naval force in the world capable of potentially sinking U.S. aircraft carriers by hostile action was the Soviet navy from the late-1960s on. Even today, that threat is not widely understood, yet it greatly influenced Chinese naval planners who have developed 21st century asymmetrical responses to threaten U.S. carrier battle groups currently operating in the Western Pacific Ocean.
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Next: How aircraft carriers became vulnerable
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