Think Tank: Sea, air, land and space updates (16-May-2017)

Zoe Glasson, Sophie Qin, Madeleine Nyst and Patrick Kennedy

Sea State

President Trump has been blowing off steam about the US Navy’s catapults. Apparently, the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) on the USS Gerald Ford—‘slated to become the crown jewel of the US Navy’—may not be long for this world. In an interview with TIME, Trump queried the use of ‘digital’ catapults and appeared to suggest a reversal to the previous generation steam-powered catapults. It’s true that EMALS has been beset by cost and schedule overruns, but the system is expected to save the Navy US$4 billion in maintenance costs over the ship’s 50-year lifetime (not to mention its many other potential benefits). Facing an impossible re-engineering task on the Ford class, and said to be ‘blindsided’ by Trump’s comments, Navy officials have declined to comment.

The Philippines is buying a second-hand warship from South Korea for just US$100 (!). But, the 30 year old Pohang-class corvette was decommissioned in December 2016 and will require considerable investment (an estimated US$4 million) to return to service. And it won’t come with all its weaponry. Luckily, South Korea, which is working to build its own arms export industry, ‘is well positioned to re-equip it for the Philippines, at a price’.

Think Tank: Sea, air, land and space updates (25-Oct-2016)

Christopher Cowan, Thulasi Wigneswaran, Elisabeth Buchan and Alexander Vipond

Sea State

One of the most storied names in British naval history is being revived for the Royal Navy’s new class of ballistic nuclear missile submarines. The Royal Navy announced last week that the first of its new submarines, initially dubbed the Successor-class, will be named HMS Dreadnought and the class will now be known as the Dreadnought-class. The Dreadnought name is one of the most famous in the Royal Navy, having been bestowed upon nine ships dating all the way back to the 16th century. Ships with that name have fought in some of the world’s most famous naval battles, including the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. But without a doubt the best known Dreadnought is the steam turbine powered battleship commissioned in 1906 that changed naval warfare (and the world) forever.

Significant progress is being made on the construction of two of China’s largest ever warships according to open source imagery obtained recently by Popular Science. Two hull sections of China’s enormous Type 055 cruiser—which will likely be around the same size as the newly commissioned USS Zumwalt—appear to have been completed. Meanwhile, China’s first indigenously-built aircraft carrier is even closer to completion, following the installation of its island tower earlier this month.

USA: Advanced Space Surveillance Telescope Has Critical Military Applications

By Cheryl Pellerin

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22, 2016 — The most sophisticated space surveillance telescope ever developed is ready to begin tracking thousands of space objects as small as a softball. It’s a boon to space surveillance and science and a new military capability important to the nation and the globe, an Air Force general says.

“It’s not often we get an opportunity to witness the beginning of an entirely new military capability,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Nina Armagno said at the transfer event, “but that's exactly what we're doing here today.”

The telescope, developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was turned over to the Air Force Oct. 18 at the Space Surveillance Telescope site atop North Oscura Peak on the northern part of the Army’s 3,200-square-mile White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Armagno, the director of strategic plans, programs, requirements and analysis for Air Force Space Command headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, was one of several speakers at the event, which was attended by officials, scientists and engineers from DARPA, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, L3 Communications, media and others.

The formal transition of the SST from a DARPA-led design and construction program to ownership by the Air Force begins the telescope’s operational phase. The Air Force will move the SST to Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station in Western Australia, operating and maintaining the telescope jointly with the Royal Australian Air Force.

The SST also will be a dedicated sensor in the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, operated by the Air Force Space Command.

According to DARPA, SST represents breakthroughs in telescope design, camera technology and image analysis software, and allows much faster discovery and tracking of previously unseen or hard-to-find small space objects.

News Story: DARPA Hands Over High-Tech Space Telescope to Air Force

By: Valerie Insinna

WASHINGTON—The Air Force on Tuesday took control of a super-powerful space telescope developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, but operational use won’t begin until around 2020, after the system is moved to Australia, a DARPA official said. 

The Space Surveillance Telescope, or SST, will be operated by Air Force Space Command in cooperation with the Royal Australian Air Force to track debris floating around space about 36,000 kilometers from Earth, said Lindsay Millard, DARPA’s program manager. 

“SST has about an order of magnitude better performance than the existing space surveillance network,” the Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS), she told reporters in an Oct. 18 conference call. 

Three technologies help contribute to that performance. The telescope incorporates the steepest curved primary telescope mirror — produced by L3 — ever made, which can collect light across a wider field of view. The first-ever “curved charge coupled device” for the camera provides clear imagery, and its fast shutter speed allows it to take a greater number of photos. 

Read the full story at DefenseNews