Latest news with #DavidAllvin
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Fuzes For GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators Requested By USAF
The U.S. Air Force is exploring new options to help with the development of improved fuzes for the 30,000-pound GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bomb. The service is also interested in additional sources for the production of other key GBU-57/B components, as well as assistance in sustaining its current stocks of the bombs. This follows the first combat use of the MOP in strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last month. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) put out a contracting notice regarding potential GBU-57 production and support needs earlier today. The total size of the existing MOP inventory is classified, but Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said that it is currently being expanded at a hearing before members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 26. At present, the B-2 stealth bomber is the only aircraft cleared to employ the massive bunker buster operationally, and can carry just two of them per sortie. The B-21 Raider stealth bomber is also expected to have the MOP in its arsenal, but it's likely it will only be able to carry one of the bombs at a time. B-52s have been used to drop them during testing, as well. 'Fuze development and integration into the components of the GBU-57 weapon system, to include integration and software modification within the KMU-612 tail-kit and the BLU-127 fuzing system,' is among the stated areas of interest in the contracting notice. The KMU-612/B, of which there are many variants already, is the tail section of the GBU-57/B, which contains the GPS-assisted inertial navigation system (INS) guidance package and other systems. The BLU-127/B is the penetrating 'warhead' that is combined with the KMU-612/B and other components to form a complete MOP. The contracting notice also lists the production of KMU-612E/B variants of the tail kit, production of other unspecified MOP components, sustainment support ('to include, but not limited to: support of all MOP hardware and support equipment; MOP tail kit repairs/retrofits; and MOP Engineering Technical Support'), and 'obsolescence support and validation,' as areas where the Air Force is looking for new assistance. 'This Sources Sought is for informational planning purposes and it is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government for any actual procurement of materials, machinery, or services,' the notice also stresses. 'This notice does not constitute a solicitation or a promise of a solicitation in the future. This Sources Sought does not commit the Government to a contract for any supply or service.' The strikes on Iran in June have put a new spotlight on the GBU-57/B and made the bombs something of a household name. The need for an option to hold the Iranian nuclear enrichment facility at Fordow at risk without having to resort to using a nuclear bomb was central to the bomb's original development. You can read more about the munition's backstory in our recent interview with a retired Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) scientist who took part in testing that led up to the MOP program here. Me, standing at the edge of a MOP crater on a mountain top at White Sands Test Range, where detailed studies of massive earth penetrators were studied for effectiveness against deeply buried targets by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) —formerly Defense Nuclear Agency.… — Gary Stradling (@gary_stradling) June 24, 2025 The MOP has been upgraded multiple times already since the munition first began entering service in the early 2010s, particularly with regard to its fuzing. This is an especially important aspect of the bunker buster's design, as TWZ was noted previously: 'Reliable fuzing, in general, is particularly important for bunker buster bombs, the components of which have to be able to withstand additional forces as the munition burrows through hard material.' 'Bombs like the MOP … that are designed to penetrate very deeply have additional specialized fuzing needs, especially for employment against targets where pre-strike intelligence about the exact depth and/or physical layout is limited. Work on advanced void-sensing fuzes that can detect when a munition has breached into a sufficiently large space, such as a room in an underground facility, is an area of development that has already been of particular interest for the U.S. military for years now. A fuze that is able to just effectively 'count' floors to help determine depth to detonate the bomb at a certain level for maximum damage would also be a useful addition.' : The capabilities offered by the existing fuzes for the MOPs were on full display in the strikes on Iran, according to the Pentagon. Each of the 12 MOPs dropped on Fordow had their 'fuze programmed bespokely' allowing 'each weapon to achieve a particular effect inside the target,' and all of the bombs 'had a unique, desired impact angle, arrival, [and] final heading,' Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Air Force Gen. Dan 'Razin' Caine explained at a press briefing on June 26. At Fordow, B-2 stealth bombers also notably dropped all of the MOPs on just two impact points, with six bombs striking each one, successively burrowing down to the actual target below. Though the Pentagon has said the overall mission was a resounding success, the actual immediate results of the strikes and their broader impacts on Iran's nuclear ambitions remain major points of contention. At the time of writing, the U.S. military's most recent public assessment is that the Iranian nuclear program has been set back between one to two years, but the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said domestic enrichment activities could resume in the country within a matter of months. Regardless, any further improvements to the GBU-57's fuzing arrangement or other aspects of the design will now benefit from lessons learned from the employment of the munitions on targets in Iran. The combat use of the MOP has also offered Iran and other potential adversaries (including Russia and China, which have strong relations with the regime in Tehran) an opportunity to try to glean key details about the bombs. Additional upgrades and modifications to the MOP could then be required to account for any attempts to devise countermeasures to its existing capabilities. The unique deep-penetrating conventional strike capability offered by the MOP, paired with the B-2 (and the future B-21), could be called upon in future conflicts well beyond Iran. China and Russia both have well-established histories of building deep underground facilities, including mountain caverns for aircraft and submarines, and continue to expand their subterranean infrastructure. North Korea has also been pushing to grow its underground capabilities, in no small part due to the threat of U.S. strikes. 'This is not a static environment,' Air Force Chief of Staff Allvin also said at the June 26 hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee. 'Now that we know that it was successful, I'm pretty sure that people who are potential adversaries might look at that and they may adapt.' Allvin was responding to a direct question about whether a replacement for the MOP is in development. The Air Force is working on a successor design, currently referred to as the Next Generation Penetrator (NGP), which could evolve into a family of munitions, if it has not begun to already. 'So, we are constantly looking at, whether it be those [MOP replacement options], or an advanced technology, or advanced tactics, to be able to get ahead and make sure, as the threat moves to defend, we have the ability to put the kit together that we can continue to have events like last Saturday night happen if we're called upon again,' Gen. Allvin added at the hearing last month, referring to the strikes on Iran. 'It might be something different than the GBU-57, some advancement based on what the enemy might do.' In the meantime, the strikes on Iran have only cemented the importance of the GBU-57 and of ensuring those bombs remain as capable as possible of holding especially deeply buried targets at risk. Contact the author: joe@
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Air Force may revive shelved ARRW hypersonic program
The Air Force wants to revive its shelved AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, hypersonic program — and perhaps move it into the procurement phase. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin told lawmakers in a hearing last week that the service wants to include funding for both ARRW and the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM, in the fiscal 2026 budget proposal. 'We are looking, and have in the budget submission — assuming it's what we had put forward — two different [hypersonic] programs,' Allvin told the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday. 'One is a larger form factor that is more strategic long-range that we have already tested several times. It's called ARRW, and the other one is HACM.' Hypersonic weapons are capable of traveling at more than five times the speed of sound and maneuvering midflight, making them harder to track and shoot down than conventional ballistic missiles and more capable of penetrating enemy defenses. China and Russia have invested heavily in hypersonic research and touted their advancements, with Russia even using hypersonic weapons in Ukraine. Those nations' successes have worried top lawmakers and Pentagon leaders and increased pressure on U.S. military services to produce their own hypersonic capabilities. The Air Force once saw ARRW, a boost-glide weapon made by Lockheed Martin, as a promising option for developing hypersonic weapons that could catch up with China's and Russia's programs. But after unsuccessful tests in late 2022 and early 2023, ARRW's future was in doubt. Andrew Hunter, then-acquisition chief, told lawmakers in March 2023 that the Air Force did not plan to buy ARRW missiles after its prototyping phase ended, spelling major trouble for the program. The Air Force's budget request for fiscal 2025, which was released in March 2024, included no funding for procurement or research and development for ARRW. The service concluded the prototype phase for ARRW in 2024. But in his comments to lawmakers last week, Allvin said the service wanted to move both ARRW and HACM beyond research and development and 'into the procurement range in the very near future.' 'We are accelerating in our development not only of the technology, but of the procurement of the capabilities that it will create,' Allvin said. Now that the Air Force has matured its hypersonic technology, it must focus on lowering costs and getting the systems into production, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers in the same hearing. 'It's got to be affordable,' Meink said. 'We've got to be able to buy more than 10 of these things. A big focus right now is ramping up the production and lowering the cost so we can get enough of that kit to actually make a difference.'
Time of India
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Ukraine's drone swarm attack was a warning for Russia and the US may be next
No shelter at home Live Events Drone warfare, democratized Homeland incursions and sleeper threats China's fortress, America's exposure 'We're not even close' The budget tug-of-war (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Ukraine's surprise drone strike on Russian airbases has shaken US defence leaders into acknowledging a grave risk — America's own airfields could be hit just as easily.'It's an eyebrow-raising moment,' said Gen. David Allvin, US Air Force Chief of Staff , at a Washington defence conference this week. 'Right now, I don't think it's where we need to be.'Ukraine's attack damaged or destroyed at least 12 Russian warplanes on June 1, including strategic bombers. Ukrainian officials claimed 41 aircraft were targeted in total. Their method was both simple and alarming: commercial-style drones were hidden inside wooden mobile houses mounted on trucks. These were driven near four Russian bases, and the drones were launched by remote once in position. The Russian bombers, unprotected on open tarmacs, never saw them neither, experts warn, would US planes in similar Shugart of the Center for a New American Security didn't mince words: 'There is no sanctuary even in the US homeland – particularly given that our bases back home are essentially completely unhardened.''Hardened,' in military terms, means aircraft are parked in reinforced shelters. But at most US facilities, including key sites like Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri or Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, multibillion-dollar bombers sit in the open, not far from public highways. It's a vulnerability mirrored in Russia — and just as easily exploitable.'We are pretty vulnerable,' retired US Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal told CNN. 'We've got a lot of high-value assets that are extraordinarily expensive.' The B-2 bomber, for example, costs $2 billion apiece. The US has only officials estimated the strike cost Russia $7 billion. And it cost Ukraine mere tens of thousands of isn't science fiction. A first-person view (FPV) drone, like the ones used in Ukraine's strike, can be bought online for under $700. Controlled by a headset, the operator can steer the drone with precision. These cheap tools are now deadly weapons.'Ukraine inflicted billions in damage,' Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told Congress this week. 'The world saw in near-real time how readily available technology can disrupt established power dynamics.'Ukraine has honed its drone tactics with urgency. Each week, engineers adapt to Russian countermeasures, staying a step threats are not confined to foreign battlefields. According to US Northern Command, there were 350 drone incursions into domestic military bases last year. Some were hobbyists, but others could have been surveillance missions by foreign adversaries — or worse.'Think of all the containers and illegal entrants inside our borders,' warned Carl Schuster, a former Pacific Command intelligence director. Every cargo truck could conceal a drone. Every base near a highway — and many are — becomes a potential target.'It's a logistical nightmare,' wrote David Kirichenko on the Atlantic Council's Ukraine Watch. Russia's vast geography, once a strength, is now a weakness. The same applies to the US debates budgets, China has built more than 650 hardened aircraft shelters within range of Taiwan, according to a Hudson Institute report co-authored by Shugart. The report warned that, in a US-China conflict, most American aircraft losses would occur on the ground — not in Guam's Andersen Air Force Base, home to B-2 and B-52 bombers, lacks hardened shelters.'The F-47 is an amazing aircraft, but it's going to die on the ground if we don't protect it,' Allvin said, referring to a proposed $300 million stealth jet touted by former President Donald contrast, Shugart estimates that a hardened aircraft shelter would cost about $30 Pentagon is scrambling. After a deadly drone strike killed three US soldiers in Jordan earlier this year, efforts to counter drones intensified. Strategies include jammers to sever control signals, intercepting missiles, even nets to snare drones mid-air. Still, none are foolproof.'There's no simple solution,' a US defence official told reporters. 'We're not even close.'That same official, speaking anonymously, warned that cheap drone swarms could soon trigger a 'mass-casualty event.' High-profile civilian targets like sports arenas and infrastructure remain dangerously root problem is money — and priorities.'If all we are doing is playing defence and can't shoot back, then that's not a good use of our money,' Allvin said. The Pentagon, with an annual budget nearing $1 trillion, must decide whether to fund new offensive systems or protect the ones it already are listening. On Capitol Hill, Senator Roger Wicker, head of the Armed Services Committee, promised billions in funding to address the drone gap. But officials remain sceptical that the urgency will match the rhetoric.'We are not doing enough,' Army Secretary Driscoll testified. 'The current status quo is not sufficient.'Ukraine's innovation with FPV drones shows how war is changing. Technology has levelled the field. The next war — or attack — could arrive in the back of a truck, not a fighter now, America's billion-dollar bombers remain on open runways. And the clock is ticking.
News18
07-06-2025
- Politics
- News18
Why Ukraine's Daring Drone Strike In Russia Has Set Off Alarm Bells In US: ‘We Are Vulnerable'
Last Updated: Among the most glaring examples is Andersen Air Force Base on Guam which, despite hosting some of the world's most expensive aircraft, lacks hardened shelters. A Ukrainian drone attack that damaged or destroyed over a dozen Russian warplanes jolted the United States as it exposed deep vulnerabilities at home and abroad. Top US defense officials are now warning that American air bases, including those on US soil, are largely 'unhardened" owing to which high-value aircraft are dangerously exposed to similar drone or missile strikes, as per a CNN report. 'This is an eyebrow-raising moment," said Gen. David Allvin, the US Air Force chief of staff, speaking at a defense forum in Washington this week, adding, 'There is no sanctuary, even in the US homeland." 'We Are Vulnerable', Say US Generals Retired US Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal told CNN, 'We are pretty vulnerable. We've got a lot of high-value assets that are extraordinarily expensive." A 2024 report by the Hudson Institute co-authored by defense expert Thomas Shugart laid out the scale of the threat. In a conflict scenario with China, for instance, the People's Liberation Army could target US aircraft 'at airfields globally, including in the continental United States," using missiles, aircraft, subs, and even special forces. 'The overwhelming majority of US aircraft losses would likely occur on the ground," the report stated, warning the outcome could be 'ruinous." Among the most glaring examples is Andersen Air Force Base on Guam which, despite hosting some of the world's most expensive aircraft, lacks hardened shelters. A New Era of Threats The drone strike on Russia has shown that even technologically modest adversaries can now launch highly effective precision strikes using cheap, portable systems. For the US, that's a wake-up call, McChrystal said, adding, 'It widens the spectrum of the threats you've got to deal with." About the Author Mallika Soni When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?" Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from geopolitics to diplomacy and global trends. Stay informed with the latest world news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! First Published:
South China Morning Post
07-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
How Ukraine's Operation Spider's Web attack on Russia holds important lessons for China
Ukrainian attacks targeting airbases deep inside Russian territory despite lacking long-range missiles or bombers could offer important lessons about modern warfare in the event of any conflict in the Taiwan Strait. Under the operation, code-named Spider's Web , Ukraine smuggled drones into Russian territory undetected and hired unwitting drivers to transport them in modified containers to locations near airbases, some of them thousands of kilometres from Ukraine's border. The drones were then launched remotely to destroy surveillance planes and long-range bombers as they sat on the tarmac. The innovative approach was not just a damaging surprise for Moscow , but also a 'wake-up moment' for militaries around the world, according to US Air Force Chief of Staff David Allvin. He said the attack showed that 'seemingly impenetrable locations' might no longer be so safe in the era of rapidly evolving drone technology and asymmetric warfare, adding that such tactics could 'create dilemmas' for both attackers and defenders. 'The lesson is not just for Russia,' said Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military aviation analyst and former member of the air force. '[Such attacks] could easily be carried out by secret services or in special military operations.' The lesson for China is that it would need 'to guard against enemy forces infiltrating military bases in such a way', Fu said.
