X-47B Makes Maiden Flight

The Northrop Grumman team is celebrating the successful first flight of the X-47B for the U.S. Navy.The X-47B is a demonstration unmanned combat air system.It is designed for integration with aircraft carriers;launching from,landing on and operating autonomously from them.
The stealthy aircraft is tailless.Its Northrop Grumman team consists of Lockheed Martin,Pratt&Whitney/United Technologies,General Electric,Dell,Honeywell,Rockwell Collins,Eaton and others.The team will also demonstrate autonomous aerial refueling for the drone.
The X-47B test took place at Edwards Air Force Base,California.
Northrop Grumman(NOC),Lockheed Martin(LMT),General Electric(GE),Honeywell International(HON),United Technologies(UTC),Dell,Inc.(DELL),Eaton(ETN),Rockwell Collins(COL)

Firms Compete For Hovercraft Contract

Textron Shipyard Operations,located on the Gulf of Mexico,is a 600,000+ square foot facility,which the company says is ready to roll.Team Textron,consisting of Textron,Alcoa and L-3,claims it has the knowledge,experience and expertise to produce hovercraft for the U.S. Navy at the shipyard.It has streamlined the construction process with a highly efficient assembly station configuration,cutting time and effort by consolidation of production.
The shipyard is unique in the world in that it can produce 10 hovercraft a year-within budget,at weight and on schedule.From advanced shape cutters to automated robotic welders,hull and craft assembly line stations to the launch ramp and test area,the team has a fully functional set-up for fulfilling the contract in the New Orleans area,Textron asserts.
A rival team,Team SSC,consisting of Marinette Marine,Boeing,Oceaneering and Griffon Hoverwork is also pursuing the ship to shore connector contract.Team SSC says it is focused on availability,reliability,maintainability and total ownership cost of these U.S. Marine equipment and personnel transport hovercraft,which must get troops and armored vehicles such as tanks from amphibious assault ships to shore.
Textron(TXT),Boeing(BA),Alcoa(AA)

Elite Marines Defend Cairo Embassy

About a dozen members of the U.S. Marines' elite Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Teams(FAST) have flown to Cairo,Egypt to augment the Marine guards already protecting the U.S. Embassy there.The State Department has also added more agents from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security to the cadre.The military plane the FAST members flew in on was then detailed to begin airlifting Americans out of the unstable city to safety in Larnaca,Cyprus.
Established in 1987,the FAST teams perform security missions as directed by the Chief of Naval Operations,presently Admiral Gary Roughead.FAST consists of two Companies plus a training Company,all of them based in Virginia.Primarily designed to conduct defensive combat ops,military security ops and rear area security ops,they also safeguard nuclear materials when nuclear-powered submarines are in port.
FAST have seen a heavy ops tempo since their inception,serving everywhere from Panama to Somalia.They conduct security patrols around perimeters,establish ambush positions along known avenues of approach,and practice close quarter combat skills in urban environments.Each FAST Company has 321 Marines,including Designated Marksmen.
The FAST Marines are armed with an array of firepower,such as 60mm mortars;M-16A2 rifles;M-16A2/M-203 40mm grenade launchers;Beretta M-9 9mm pistols and SMAW Anti-tank rockets.

Somali Piracy Update:South Korean SEALs Retake Freighter

In a remarkable predawn raid last Friday,South Korean navy commandos wrested control of the freighter Samho Jewelry back from Somali pirates,killing eight of them and arresting five.All 21 hostages on the freighter,which had been transporting chemicals from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka,were freed in the five-hour operation that involved a destroyer and helicopter providing covering fire as the commandos used ladders to board the merchant ship.
The ship's captain was shot in the stomach by a pirate.Seok Bae-gyun,58,was flown off the freighter by a U.S. helicopter to a friendly nation for medical care.He was expected to make a full recovery.
So far this year,Somali pirates have seized four vessels.They currently hold a total of 31 ships with 716 hostages on board.An international flotilla,including U.S. Navy warships,continues to conduct anti-piracy patrols near Somalia,with sporadic successes such as the South Korean raid to show for its efforts.Four days before the raid,a U.S. Navy boarding party had disrupted a suspected Somali pirate operation in the Gulf of Aden.

Navy Halts Suspected Pirates

Last Monday,a boarding party from the destroyer USS Laboon(DDG 58)stopped a skiff sailing in the Gulf of Aden,off the coast of Somalia,which was likely perpetrating acts of piracy.The Laboon had been tailing the skiff for hours before the boarding party was dispatched.It seized fuel and equipment that Somali pirates use in their commandeering of merchant vessels.
The sailors reportedly witnessed the skiff's crew dumping weapons and ladders into the Gulf as the Laboon approached them.No arrests were made,NATO alliance sources said.The Laboon has been assigned to a NATO task force for anti-piracy and other missions since August 2010.It is armed with missiles and a Mk45 5-inch/54 caliber gun,as well as Mk32 torpedo tubes.