By now everyone has heard about MARSOC approving Glocks for use by their Marines.
I don't have a problem with that. I DO HOWEVER find it interesting that just a few short years ago there was big news about how MARSOC was all wrapped up in buy .45's for its Marines and how everyone was so happy about them sticking with a "real" gun.
I would really be impressed if the Marine Corps stepped away from trends and started doing the "Marine Thing" again. Think about it. The new combat fitness test is nothing but modified crossfit. There was nothing wrong with "old skool" PT but because you had a zealot in the ranks that was into crossfit a change was made. Now we're seeing it again in the weapons selection.
This yo-yoing needs to stop. Change for change sake is nothing but manufactured chaos.
I've posted here a couple times about "Turbo" Tomasetti, formerly USMC and now Lockheed, toutiing "fusion" as the major contribution of the F-35B to the MC. F35 "fusion" hasn't even been tested yet so there is no basis for "Fusion is what makes that platform so fundamentally different than anything else."
ReplyDeleteRegarding operational testing there is a law:
10 USC § 2399 - Operational test and evaluation of defense acquisition programs
The Secretary of Defense shall provide that a covered major defense acquisition program or a covered designated major subprogram may not proceed beyond low-rate initial production until initial operational test and evaluation of the program or subprogram is completed.
Eventually perhaps "fusion" will be tested and evaluated in an operational scenario, but it won't happen before the MC declares "combat capability" scheduled for July. That's criminal.
i wanna setup a debate between you and Spudman about the F-35. the idea is to grant mod permissions so that you two can respond to questions posted in an open thread. i don't know if he's game and if he isn't i can find another supporter. but are you interested?
ReplyDeleteIn that case any fighter could be transformed in a 5gh gen fighters using the TacNet as the navy just did on the Trident warrior exercise.
ReplyDeleteRockwell Collins TacNet Tactical Radio (TTR):
Btw, did you see the video of the super hornet guiding a tomahawk to a moving target?
They will do the same with the LRASM
Imagine the possibilities for air defense if they do the same with the Aegis missiles.
http://youtu.be/-O2-OVoxI4k
TACTOM:
http://youtu.be/Jgv5ixxgTsQ
If fusion is the core 5.0 gen value, so the rafale is currently 5.0 gen and tomorrow the Gripen E will.
ReplyDeleteUSAF is pathetic. They
ReplyDeletehave no creditability left, zip. Nobody is buying into their BS.
The SLD boys still refuse to take a ride in the latest Super Hornet. If they did, they would actually see sensor "fusion" in an operational aircraft. So it doesn't have the pano screens - but it could if the Navy wanted them (they are part of the ASH upgrade roadmap.) On a side note, the JSF program office is soliciting for new cockpit displays - seems the old ones are already obsolete.
ReplyDeleteThe Lockheed propaganda machine is noteworthy.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how far they can go, what they can get away with when spouting this non sense propaganda to the largely uninformed people and politicians. I sadly believe quite far... but certainly hope they soon stumble.
ReplyDeleteIt makes no sense to claim you can not build what in the end amounts to electronics in to older airframes, besides this Rafale and Gripen already come close and the E version of the latter would be 5th generation with an actually capable airframe unlike F35.
It's a signal from Air Force that Navy is correct--
ReplyDeleteHostage: People focus on stealth as the determining factor or delineator of the fifth generation. It isn’t
NavyTimes, Feb 9
The top officer of one of three services projected to spend tens of billions of dollars on stealthy new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, now says "stealth may be overrated."
During a speech last week to a Washington audience, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert described what he's looking for in the next generation of strike aircraft — and it doesn't look like the controversial F-35.
"What does that next strike fighter look like?" Greenert asked the packed forum. "I'm not sure it's manned, don't know that it is. You can only go so fast, and you know that stealth may be overrated. ... Let's face it, if something moves fast through the air, disrupts molecules and puts out heat — I don't care how cool the engine can be, it's going to be detectable. You get my point."
Stealth is dead.
The whole deal, including data theft, was to trap China into building expensive useless aircraft. :-)
Categorizing fighters in terms of generation was something invented by Lockheed. Problem is that they can't go back after all that marketing about stealth being the definition of a 5th gen fighter. They're just spewing whatever bullshit they think will keep getting them the funding.
ReplyDeleteA complete lie ... ---And you’re not going to put fusion into a fourth gen airplane because their avionic suites are not set up to be a fused platform.---
ReplyDelete