USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10), the Navy's newest littoral combat ship, was brought to life by her crew before a crowd of nearly 2,500 guests at Pier 21 at the Port of Galveston, June 10.
In 2012 the Secretary of the Navy announced the future ship's name and USS Gabrielle Giffords became the 16th ship to be named for a woman and only the 13th ship to be named for a living person since 1850. The ship is commanded by Cmdr. Keith Woodley, a native of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, who leads the core crew of 50 officers and enlisted personnel. The 3,200-ton Gabrielle Giffords was built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala. The ship is 421 feet in length, has a beam of 103 feet, and a navigational draft of 15 feet. The ship uses two gas turbine and two diesel engines to power four steerable waterjets to speeds in excess of 40 knots.
USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) is an Independence-class littoral combat ship of the United States Navy. The ship is named after former United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot along with eighteen other people during the 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona. The ship's name was announced by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus on 10 February 2012.
Gabrielle Giffords will be the 16th U.S. naval ship to be named for a woman by the United States Navy, and the 13th U.S. naval ship since 1850 to be named after a living person. The ship was delivered to the U.S. Navy on 23 December 2016.
South Korea will complete the development of an advanced radar system to be placed on the country's KF-X indigenous fighter jets by 2026 that will greatly boost its air-combat capabilities.The state-run Agency for Defense Development has begun the process of developing the active electronically scanned array radars for some 120 KF-X fighter jets that South Korea seeks to develop by the mid-2020s, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said. It said a meeting with related officials and experts was held at the ADD's headquarters in Daejeon, 164 kilometers south of Seoul.
South Korea plans to build the new planes under the 18 trillion-won ($15 billion) Korean Fighter Experimental project in a bid to replace its aging jet fleet of F-4s and F-5s, while the Korean military decided to develop the AESA radar system on its own as the United States refused to transfer core technologies related to the fighter jet and the advanced radar.
The Korea Aerospace Industries KF-X/Indonesian Aerospace IF-X is a South Korean and Indonesian program to develop an advanced multirole fighter for the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) and Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU), spearheaded by South Korea with Indonesia as the primary partner. It is South Korea's second fighter development program following the FA-50.
The project was first announced by South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung at the graduation ceremony of the Korea Air Force Academy in March 2001. South Korea and Indonesia agreed to cooperate in the production of KF-X/IF-X warplanes in Seoul on July 15, 2010. The initial operational requirements for the KF-X/IF-X program as stated by the ADD (Agency for Defence Development) were to develop a single-seat, twin-engine jet with stealth capabilities beyond either the Dassault Rafale or Eurofighter Typhoon, but still less than the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.
The overall focus of the program is producing a 4.5th generation fighter with higher capabilities than a KF-16 class fighter by 2020. Quantities of the resulting fighter are planned at 120 for the ROK Air Force and 80 for the Indonesian Air Force. South Korea plans to procure it from 2023 to 2030.
An active electronically scanned array (AESA), is a type of phased array antenna, that is a computer-controlled array antenna in which the beam of radio waves can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving the antenna. In the AESA, each antenna element is connected to a small solid-state transmit/receive module (TRM) under the control of a computer, which performs the functions of a transmitter and/or receiver for the antenna. This contrasts with a passive electronically scanned array (PESA), in which all the antenna elements are connected to a single transmitter and/or receiver through phase shifters under the control of the computer. AESAs main use is in radar, and these are known as active phased array radar (APAR).
The AESA is a more advanced, sophisticated, second-generation of the original PESA phased array technology. PESAs can only emit a single beam of radio waves at a single frequency at a time. The AESA can radiate multiple beams of radio waves at multiple frequencies simultaneously. AESA radars can spread their signal emissions across a wider range of frequencies, which makes them more difficult to detect over background noise, allowing ships and aircraft to radiate powerful radar signals while still remaining stealthy. Most of the radar systems used in modern combat aircraft are AESA systems.
The Type 26 Global Combat Ship will be a world-class anti-submarine warfare ship and will replace the Type 23 frigates. Globally deployable, it will be capable of undertaking a wide range of roles from high intensity warfare to humanitarian assistance, either operating independently or as part of a task group.
BAE Systems and the UK Government with the confidence to continue to progress export campaigns for the Type 26 Global Combat Ship with other navies around the world with similar requirements, including Canada and Australia.
Plans are also on track to finalise a contract to build two further Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs), which the Government committed to in the SDSR, providing continuous warship production in Glasgow through to the Type 26 programme. The first three River Class OPVs are already under construction at BAE Systems’ facilities in Glasgow. Construction of first of class, FORTH, began in October 2014, second of class, MEDWAY, began in June 2015 while TRENT began in October 2015.
The OPV design builds on the Royal Navy's existing River Class ships and variants are already in service in Brazil and Thailand. Engineers at BAE Systems have modified the design to meet the requirements of the Royal Navy in support of UK interests both at home and abroad. The new River Class OPVs will be globally deployable and capable of ocean patrol.
