With the reign of Amos rapidly coming to an end (THANK GOD!), its time to look forward at what the next Commandant will have to deal with. Of course this is assuming that Obama doesn't decide to screw the Marine Corps for another generation by appointing ANOTHER sub-standard Commandant to the helm.
If we get another air winger...correction, if we get another politician in uniform (I really need to back off the wing bashing...Amos was an outlier...too many good guys swing with the wing) then all bets are off. But onto the list...
F-35.
We've got to come to some type of reality about this airplane. F-35 supporters all claim that the numbers are backed into the cake and that any adjustment is not possible. I don't buy it. The plane costs too much to purchase and all indications are that it will cost too much to maintain. Too much capability has already been sacrificed at the altar of the F-35. The next Commandant needs to cut purchase of the F-35C all together, cut the numbers bought of the F-35B, purchase Super Hornets for the carrier mission and decide exactly how many of the F-35's the Marine Corps needs AND can afford in the age of austerity.
AAV.
Its past time for a replacement. Amos has fiddled, lied and dithered while wasting 4 years. I don't have the information from the Test Branch or Land PEO but HQMC does. Pick something. Whether its a MPC, ACV, radically upgraded AAV or simple upgrades to the AAV, something needs to be done. This should have been solved but while Amos monitored the F-35 program monthly, he neglected the ride for his infantry.
Women in the infantry.
Allowing women to serve in many of the combat arms will not cause controversy. Women in the infantry will cause friction in the Corps like nothing else. Once again Amos has punted and decided to do a study. Its bullshit and everyone knows it, but it will be up to the next Commandant to do the right thing and ask Congress for an exemption. Not even the Army is pushing to get this done and for good reason. Bodies will break, unit cohesion will be broken and Marines will rebel. Funny thing? The decision might have already been made but they're waiting till after the 2014 elections to keep from stirring up Republicans or disappointing liberal Democrat females.
Marine Expeditionary Brigade.
Amos has an initiative to make the MEB the unit of operation, basically replacing the MEU. It won't work, hasn't worked in this experimentation phase and is silly. Quite honestly the MEF(Forward) is what we should be aiming for. Get rid of the MEB totally, and during times when multiple MEU's are brought together you activate the already standing MEF to deploy its Forward command group to whatever theater. You would take personnel from the standing MEF's and put either the CO of the MEF or his assistant in charge.
SPMAGTF-Crisis Response.
Seriously? Really? Small numbers of Marines being sent long distances aboard MV-22's to respond to rapidly changing events? Can someone que charge of the light brigade please! Too light to fight, too far to support and easily isolated and destroyed is the future of these units. I notice that the darlings of the Commandant (Recon) is staffing these units. Awesome. The same thing applies as a regular infantry unit. They can just do more pullups and have better run times. SPMAGTF-Crisis Response needs to go the way of the dodo bird.
Jungle School.
Amos talked about establishing a jungle school that was more rigorous than the NTA. Awesome. With Marines now deploying to Australia and with Brits have locations in the S. Pacific along with the French running courses in S. America, the opportunity to finally get a training agreement is easily seen. Pick one...hell pick two and rotate Marines through. Additionally its time to finally get off the pot about developing "leaders" qualifications. The Brits have Mountain Leaders and we need to copy that with the addition of having Jungle Experts, Desert Experts, Arctic Leaders etc....Training with allies in the appropriate environment should be easy enough to arrange and it will further professionalize our Infantry Battalions.
If we get another air winger...correction, if we get another politician in uniform (I really need to back off the wing bashing...Amos was an outlier...too many good guys swing with the wing) then all bets are off. But onto the list...
F-35.
We've got to come to some type of reality about this airplane. F-35 supporters all claim that the numbers are backed into the cake and that any adjustment is not possible. I don't buy it. The plane costs too much to purchase and all indications are that it will cost too much to maintain. Too much capability has already been sacrificed at the altar of the F-35. The next Commandant needs to cut purchase of the F-35C all together, cut the numbers bought of the F-35B, purchase Super Hornets for the carrier mission and decide exactly how many of the F-35's the Marine Corps needs AND can afford in the age of austerity.
AAV.
Its past time for a replacement. Amos has fiddled, lied and dithered while wasting 4 years. I don't have the information from the Test Branch or Land PEO but HQMC does. Pick something. Whether its a MPC, ACV, radically upgraded AAV or simple upgrades to the AAV, something needs to be done. This should have been solved but while Amos monitored the F-35 program monthly, he neglected the ride for his infantry.
Women in the infantry.
Allowing women to serve in many of the combat arms will not cause controversy. Women in the infantry will cause friction in the Corps like nothing else. Once again Amos has punted and decided to do a study. Its bullshit and everyone knows it, but it will be up to the next Commandant to do the right thing and ask Congress for an exemption. Not even the Army is pushing to get this done and for good reason. Bodies will break, unit cohesion will be broken and Marines will rebel. Funny thing? The decision might have already been made but they're waiting till after the 2014 elections to keep from stirring up Republicans or disappointing liberal Democrat females.
Marine Expeditionary Brigade.
Amos has an initiative to make the MEB the unit of operation, basically replacing the MEU. It won't work, hasn't worked in this experimentation phase and is silly. Quite honestly the MEF(Forward) is what we should be aiming for. Get rid of the MEB totally, and during times when multiple MEU's are brought together you activate the already standing MEF to deploy its Forward command group to whatever theater. You would take personnel from the standing MEF's and put either the CO of the MEF or his assistant in charge.
SPMAGTF-Crisis Response.
Seriously? Really? Small numbers of Marines being sent long distances aboard MV-22's to respond to rapidly changing events? Can someone que charge of the light brigade please! Too light to fight, too far to support and easily isolated and destroyed is the future of these units. I notice that the darlings of the Commandant (Recon) is staffing these units. Awesome. The same thing applies as a regular infantry unit. They can just do more pullups and have better run times. SPMAGTF-Crisis Response needs to go the way of the dodo bird.
 |
| Does the Army even do Jungle Expert anymore? I read about it but have never seen it on a uniform. |
Jungle School.
Amos talked about establishing a jungle school that was more rigorous than the NTA. Awesome. With Marines now deploying to Australia and with Brits have locations in the S. Pacific along with the French running courses in S. America, the opportunity to finally get a training agreement is easily seen. Pick one...hell pick two and rotate Marines through. Additionally its time to finally get off the pot about developing "leaders" qualifications. The Brits have Mountain Leaders and we need to copy that with the addition of having Jungle Experts, Desert Experts, Arctic Leaders etc....Training with allies in the appropriate environment should be easy enough to arrange and it will further professionalize our Infantry Battalions.
Koreans show the US government how to manage a fighter jet project right.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.defensenews.com/article/20140329/DEFREG03/303290019/S-Korea-Wants-Lockheed-Invest-Fighter-Plan
South Korea will ask Lockheed Martin to invest in the country’s KF-X fighter jet development project as part of offset deals over its selection of the F-35 joint strike fighter.
In the offset discussions, Seoul plans to ask Lockheed to shoulder as much as 20 percent of the KF-X development costs, according to multiple military sources.
“Our focus is to receive quality technology for the KF-X development,” said Jung Kwang-sun, head of DAPA’s Aircraft Business Department. “Should a partner company invest in a joint development project, it could be more responsible for the project concerned.”
A Lockheed spokesperson said there has been no decision on the company’s investment in the KF-X. Lockheed has offered to provide more than 300 man-years’ worth of engineering expertise in assisting Seoul in designing KF-X.
The F-35 builder also will offer more than 500,000 pages of technical documentation derived from the F-16, F-35 and F-22, another stealth combat jet built by the US company.
But direct investment is a hard option for Lockheed to choose, said Yang Wook, a research member of the Korea Defense and Security Forum, based here.
“The KF-X is very different from the T-50,” Yang said. “Unlike the trainer, a KF-X could be a potential competitor with existing mid-sized fighter jets, including Lockheed Martin’s F-16.”
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Basically, Lockheed is asked to put its own money down in the development project. If cost overruns, then it's Lockheed's fault and Lockheed gets to recover less of its money, if any(Project cancelled due to cost overruns and delays). If successful, then Lockheed will be reimbursed in full amount + profit. Lockheed cannot refuse this demand because there is a bidder that have indicated that they would invest more than than asked of them, and the Korean government would take that offer instead should Lockheed refuse. The reason the Korean government is putting this condition in is to guarantee that Lockheed would put its best effort to make the project succeed for the sake of its own money.
The US government should take this strategy and demand that future arms suppliers invest their own money in development phase.
thats a bullshit strategy.
Deleteit ignores the other aviation companies out there that do good work and tosses another bone to Lockheed Martin.
S. Korea has nothing to teach us about proper program management with this example. what they do teach is something we don't want to follow.
they're teaching the continuation of a false monopoly, the rewarding of bad behavior on the part of a corporation and how to tie ones future procurement into the buying of a questionable product.
yeah. i'll pass on following the S. Korean example.
I tend to disagree with Slowman on a lot of things but in this situation it seems like a good strategy. It could certainly be applied to other aerospace companies as well. Of course it is a method that wouldn't work for all projects, but something on the scale of KF-X might work.
DeleteThe reason Lockheed is being asked first here is because of the industrial offsets required as part of contract for those 40 F-35As. Such an agreement would probably fulfill that requirement.
Lockheed would certainly like to sell South Korea a further 20 F-35As for the remaining 20 fighters South Korea still plans to acquire as part of F-X Phase 3. There is a chance they could later sell some F-35Bs for South Korea's Dokdo class amphibious assault ships too. What happens here will either help or hurt their prospects for those future sales. If they reject this offer it's likely those next 20 fighters will be Boeing's Advanced F-15.
NukeFromOrbit
Delete> Lockheed would certainly like to sell South Korea a further 20 F-35As
There is no additional 20. That one and the F-15K replacement requirements have been rolled into the KFX C103 instead to build the scale of economy.
> There is a chance they could later sell some F-35Bs for South Korea's Dokdo class amphibious assault ships too.
The ROKN is planning to have two regular carriers, not STOVL carrier, with the first CBG being operational by 2028.
STOVL doesn't make sense for Korea, because Korea has a world-class military shipbuilding industry and it is much cheaper for the ROKN navy to simply build big carriers cheaply(shipyards are quoting $2.5 billion for two regular carriers) and field regular naval fighters on them than to build STOVL carriers and field F-35Bs.
Is that information about South Korea not seeking another 20 fighters confirmed? Also a replacement for the F-15K? Those aircraft are all relatively new and from what I know of KF-X it won't be in the same size class as the F-15.
DeleteTwo genuine carriers? What size?
NukeFromOrbit
Delete> Is that information about South Korea not seeking another 20 fighters confirmed?
From inside sources yes. 20 additional F-35 is useless for the ROKAF, because of its limited weapon types and its inability to get a lock on Japanese fighter jets, nor is it survivable against the J-20. It is strictly an F/A-117 type platform for the ROKAF.
This is why the ROKAF is now seeking 60 used F-16s cut from USAF services under sequester as a stopgap solution instead, to buy time until the arrival of the KFX. http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2014/03/26/33/0301000000AEN20140326004100315F.html
The biggest problem with the F-35 is the integration of the Taurus missile, which cannot be integrated into the F-35 and the 60 F-15Ks is the sole type able to carry this weapon. But the F-15K must also deliver bunkerbusters(another F-15K exclusive weapon) as well as patrol the new southern KADIZ that is some 150 km off the coast of Shanghai. Accordingly, the Taurus missile carriage requirement has been rolled over to the KFX.
The official jungle warfare school was closed in 1999 when Fort Sherman was handed over to Panama. Last year the 25th ID set up a Division level Jungle Warfare school in Hawaii. This is not an approved TRADOC course, but it is a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeletethanks for the reply. does the school in Hawaii actually mirror jungle conditions?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I usually end up in the role of defending the F-35 around here, primarily because despite the flaws I think it has something to offer.
ReplyDeleteThat said the F-35C is the variant I am least enthusiastic about because in the long run I think the USN will need something more capable.
The USMC ditching the F-35C in favor of new Super Hornets would be entirely dependent on the USN doing the same to their larger planned F-35C order. Otherwise it isn't going to happen. The USN isn't too enthusiastic about the F-35C themselves but if they go along with it the USMC gets dragged along too. On the positive side if things work out favorably there will be a large degree of logistics commonly for the two variants.
Currently the USMC has something in the way of 120+ Harrier IIs compared to a planned order of 340 F-35Bs. Those and the 80 F-35Cs will also replace the 230 or so F/A-18s the USMC has. The end result is a growth in USMC aviation which may end poorly if our country is still on the border of financial ruin and cuts continue to occur. So cutting the number of aircraft is possible here but the politics of the greater JSF program and the possibility of the Navy losing a carrier will also be important factors for whoever has to make these decisions.
Agreed about the AAV, yet I am at a loss to what exactly should be replacing it. I liked the idea of the MPC, especially based on some of the stuff I've read about some of the contenders like the Patria AMV. However none of those vehicles are true amphibians in the sense the AAV is. They can swim across a river or lake, or do a few kilometers from a ship to a beach, yet they can't swim the same distance and deal with the very rough conditions in open water the AAV can. At the end of the day the need to replace the AAV seems to take priority over the MPC. Yet should we try for the hydroplaning capability again?
Regarding women in the infantry, I think it can work in some conditions as long as no standards are lowered yet given the all of the politics surrounding the issue these days now isn't the time to do such a thing. An exemption would be best for now.