THREAD 🧵 Virginia Class SSN

In this thread I’ll go over a general overview of the Virginia a class SSN came to be and its evolution into the backbone of USN submarine force . (1/n) Post-Cold War Genesis & Strategic Pivot

The Virginia story begins with a failure: the Seawolf class (SSN-21). Designed in the late 1980s to counter Soviet Akulas under Arctic ice, Seawolf was a revolutionary much more quieter than Los Angeles class, capable of 35+ knots, deeper diving, and armed for under-ice battles.
Price tag: $3–3.5B per boat (1990s).
Planned: 29 boats.
Actual: 3.
The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Congress killed Seawolf’s mass production due to high costs .
The Navy immediately launched the Centurion Study (1991) to design a cheaper, modular, multi-role successor that could survive the new budget reality while preparing for emergent littoral conflicts. This would eventually become the New SSN (NSSN)—the Virginia. (2/n)

F-100 Frigate Program thread🧵 Following Spain's need for modern escort ships by 2000 and the collapse of international cooperation attempts, it became clear there needed to be a national solution to replace aging frigates and maintain naval capabilities in an increasingly complex maritime environment (1/n) The F-100 programs had their origin in the need for the Navy to count on a suitable number of escort ships in the year 2000. To accomplish this, Spain participated, starting in 1983, in the future NFR-90 frigate project, in which eight NATO nations tried to co-develop a common ship. This was one of the most ambitious multinational defense projects of the Cold War era, aiming to standardize allied naval capabilities while reducing costs through shared development.

Now apart from national requirements, there were other challenges to the NFR-90 project just as differing naval doctrines, industrial interests, and political agendas. But it was getting clear the program would get less effective over time if national disparities were not reconciled, and designing by committee was a big problem in itself as it exposed the project to conflicting requirements from eight different nations (this can be seen as NFR-90 was cancelled in 1989, with approximately 6 years of work lost). The program was cancelled in 1989, given the disparity of national requirements.(2/n)

THREAD 🧵AIM-120 AMRAAM
In this thread I will go over how the most ubiquitous Air to Air missiles was developed , its early testing phases and its many many upgrades and variants (1/n) Cold War Genesis & Strategic Imperative

The AIM-120 AMRAAM story begins in the late 1970s during the height of Cold War tensions. Soviet advances in beyond-visual-range (BVR) technology, particularly the R-23 Goa (AA-7 Apex) and developmental R-27 Alamo (AA-10) threatened USAF air superiority .

The 1979 Iranian revolution and subsequent intelligence revelations about Soviet missile capabilities created an urgent Pentagon requirement develop a "fire-and-forget" air-to-air missile that could restore US technological dominance and tactical flexibility in BVR combat.(2/n)

THREAD🧵Cooperative Engagement Capability ( CEC) In the Post Cold War 1990's USN found itself performing many littoral missions that it wasn't best suited for , Aegis had revolutionized USN air dense but as always improvements are always necessary (1/n) The goal was simple fuse allied forces' unique vantage points and coordinate 20-30 missile launchers + aircraft interceptors. The system had to create an identical, high-quality picture usable as local data for engagements even if sourced from 30-40 miles away.(2/n)

Short Thread/Informal🧵Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) Concept Development
NTDS was the USN's primary Combat System before Aegis . It was developed in the 1950's from the lessons learnt USAF SAGE Air Defense Network (1/n) But before we get to it . The Royal Navy was suffering from the same problems , so as way to combat that they came up with the Comprehensive Display System as a way of automating and better collect data (2/n)

THREAD🧵Advanced Surface Missile System (ASMS)
Continuing , even though Typhon was cancelled ,the requirements it was to be built for remained unfulfilled . So to counter this USN under Secretary McNamara started the ASMS program .(1/n)

7 industry proposals were received. In general their concepts were similar to Typhon featuring a powerful computer-directed multifunction radar, but most of the contractors proposed flat array antennas similar to the Long Beach and Enterprise planar array radars.(2/n)

THREAD🧵( TYPHON RADAR SYSTEM)
In the late 1950's as Soviet started to introduce advanced anti ship missiles and advanced jamming techniques , USN faced a difficult choice of continuing the current system or innovate . (1/n)





While the system at the time the 3T ( Terrier,Tartar,Talos) had gone through quick iterative development quickly increasing the engagement zones , they had a issue while the missiles have been developed/updated fairly quickly the actual radar on the ships was obsolete (2/n)

THREAD ATF/F-22 Development
This thread on how one of the best how the best air superiority fighters came be . From the 1970's to the present day. (1/n)🧵 The concept of an Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) was first pro- posed during the early 1970s as an advanced air-to-surface strike air- craft to replace the F-4, t F- 105, and F-111 in front-line (2/n)

Some interesting stuff I found , while searching about the 3B1 ( SC-21 Concept that evolved into the Zumwalt), lets start with classic DOD slide (1/n) The basic system they were expecting , interesting to see PAC-3 there given USN maybe fielding it in the future (2/n)

F-117 thread
Following USAF experiences in the Vietnam War and observing Israeli performance in the Yom Kippur War , it's was clear there needed someway for aircraft to bypass SAM'S (1/n)🧵

Now apart from RCS reduction , there were other countermeasures to the SAM problem just as ECM,Chaff and flying low.But it was getting clear their usage would get less effective over time if RCS was not reduced and flying low was a big problem in of itself as it exposed aircraft

Continuing with the Sr-71 posting , this discusses about the threat faced by it from SAM's and Foxbat



Stuff on Foxbat interception ( and SAM's)

I am seeing a lot of posts saying they want a return to FFG-7/OHP , while I can agree with modern equivalents . Some people have saying it to just modernise that design which I think more or less is very eh decision . I have not articulated the pro/con's so this is going to be of lower quality . So first of all growth margins or even space for modern sensors would be very limited ,doubtful it could meet ASW noise requirement. Further if we considering VLS very hypothetically speaking it could have 16 VLS ( 8 short ones for ESSM, 8 where arm launcher

Super Thread , to keep track of all stuff
1)F-16 Testbeds for F-35

https://x.com/VLO225/status/1731246408248762710

2) Some uninformed yapping about Contract Structures

https://x.com/VLO225/status/1735201624287498286

I feel that USN kinda lacks proper SSC force and although LCS upgrades and FFG production do fix this in some respect , there is still more to be done . This is not to say acquiring more Burkes is bad , but in areas like small port visits , anti piracy patrol it's not the best asset to use , make it too light (LCS) and the amount it can directly contribute in peer warfare goes substantially , although LCS are still very important as they represent a recapitalisation in USN MCM capability which is very underinvested

The US cooked a lot of interesting stuff during Cold War , SWERVE which was the baseline design for LRHW/IRCPS was originally designed as a SAM to plink Soviet bombers ( note yes someone did propose a manned version, don't ask why)





2. Alpha Draco