MBDA - CVW102 FlexiS Modular Missile (IYAOYAS boys better watch their backs!)

I don't know if I'm seeing this video correctly, but if we ever reach a point where missiles are assembled aboard ship by robots then the IYAOYAS boys better watch out....still someone has to load the weapons on planes so maybe job security remains.

Venezuela's Navy gets new landing craft.

via Janes.

The Venezuelan Navy is significantly expanding its amphibious transport capabilities and is now expected to receive two more Damen Stan Lander 5612 roll-on/roll-off landing vessels in August, according to local reports.
These two vessels were launched from the Damen Song Cam shipyard in Vietnam in mid-July and are part of a follow-on order for eight, valued at EUR94 million (USD102.1 million) and signed in February 2014. Damen's Song Cam shipyards will build another two landing vessels and it is expected that DAMEX - a joint Cuban-Dutch shipyard in Santiago, Cuba - will build the remaining four on order.
Those vessels will join four of the same class delivered between April 2012 and December 2014 by DAMEX.

Something weird is going on with Venezuela.

They're still increasing the size and capability of their military while they're in the midst of an economic meltdown?  Why?

Regardless, they're arming up to fight someone....I just don't know who.

Pre-JYM...If you lift you have to try this shit!

I've rarely recommended products.  Especially when it comes to exercise supplements because everyone is different biologically, have different goals etc...

This is different.

Pre-JYM is a beast!  It hits so hard, doesn't have you shivering like a Royal Marine taking the winter package in Norway, gives you great pumps and will help you lift longer.

I'm not a huge cardio hound.  You runner boys will have to let me know if it works for your crowd but for the gym?

HELL YEAH!

Oh one other thing.  I notice alot of people are shit canning it before they try it based on price.  Well I crunched the numbers, watched the vid and he truth is stark.  You can buy all these ingredients individually, give yourself the same dosage and you'll end up spending more money than you will with this product standalone.

Its a winner.

Try it, you'll thank me later.

Those Black Helicopters belong to the RAF!

Rumours of a black puma being spotted in Kabul this week proved to be true, as the RAF’s 230 Squadron returned to operational duty…this time in Afghanistan.

Arsenal Ship....its time has come...UPDATE!

With China rising, its time to dust off old concepts that make sense.

The Arsenal Ship is one of those.  No need for me to point out the pluses, New Wars Blog did that long ago...

Plans were for the Arsenal Ship to enter service by 2001, which would have been just in time for the opening of the War on Terror after 9/11. Can you imagine the Taliban's reaction when a warship with up to 1000 cruise missiles appeared in the Indian Ocean, all aimed to strike their corrupt regime? Likely they would have given us Osama Bin Laden's head on a silver platter! Not to mention the oft-sanctions defying Saddam Hussein, who knew from experience the power of such new age weapons against his Cold War era air defense system.
Besides an immense missile-firing platform, other unique extras in the design included:
Very small crew-Only 50 were deemed necessary to operate the 500-800 foot craft. Compare this to 300 on much smaller destroyer, or 6000 needed to crew a Nimitz class aircraft carrier.
Low cost-The initial version cost about $450 million, or about the price of the tiny new littoral combat ship. The huge weapons payload would have added to the cost, but still come in far less than the $6-$8 billion price tag of a heavy carrier.
Water armor-Plans were for the ship to have ballast tanks similar to a submarine, which could be filled to provide a low profile in enemy waters. An added benefit to this, as proved in the Tanker War of the 1980's, is that such a vessel providing its own buoyancy would be extremely difficult to sink.
A Digitized Warship-She could have been operated by remote control, with her weapons systems tied into to other Aegis Ships or AWACS aircraft, and aimed accordingly. She would have been an integral part of the US Ballistic Missile Defense program.
In 1996, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jeremy Boorda committed suicide. Boorda was the chief proponent of the radical new design, and with him went the hopes for fielding the Arsenal Ship. Admittedly, in a time of Clinton defense slashing and without a clear enemy at sea due to the end of the Cold War, such an untried vessel stood little chance. Still, I can't help but imagine the carrier admirals breathing a collective sigh of relief with the fall of this latest threat to their dominance of the defense budget.

We've had in service Tomahawk cruise missiles with a 1500 plus range.  We could probably increase that to almost 2000 miles today.  With the Arsenal Ship we're looking at launch cells, a few close in weapon systems....nothing too fancy.  Targeting information can come from other sources and we can expect a couple of Burke's to be around to provide protection.

So basically all we need is a big hull to stuff alot of missiles into.

But think about this.

China has completed the foundation of their anti-access complex.  The F-35 isn't going to have the range necessary to reach targets of interest even if its stealth works perfectly and the USAF will never have enough stealth bombers to handle the job either.

I said all that to say this.

The Arsenal Ship has gone from a nice to have...to a must have.  Having Burke Destroyers carrying land attack cruise missiles is a waste and not very smart.  Those vertical launch cells need to be filled with anti-air missiles.

Two Arsenal Ships for each coast, carrying 1000 missiles each should cover all but "total war" contingencies and if that time does come then putting together an Arsenal Ship Squadron with 4,000 plus missiles aboard should chill the bones of our adversaries.

Its 2015 and the Arsenal Ship's time has arrived.

UPDATE:  I've been monitoring the conversation in the comments section and I have one question.  Are you guys smoking crack!!!!!  I'm talking about dealing with a big war with China.  I'm talking about needing every available launch cell on a Burke dedicated to anti-air missiles to deal with the swarm of incoming, long range, high speed anti-ship missiles that we can expect from an ALL AXIS ATTACK!!!!  I'm talking about being able to engage the launchers at distance without having to risk an aircrew to get at them.  The Arsenal ship is the answer.  Additionally its time to put our ballistic missile subs back into their main role.  To take a few boats and turn them into cruise missile boats is at best a half measure....a very expensive one at that.  THE ARSENAL SHIP doesn't have to be state of the art.  It can be a container ship and I've even seen proposals for an ARSENAL BARGE which would be TOWED to theater!  THINK ABOUT THE THREAT...THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE THREAT WITH THE MOST DANGEROUS SCENARIO!  If you can defeat that then beating up primitives in the Middle East will be easy.

Poor confused little girl & is the "military" a new interest group?

I ran across this on my nightly patrols of the web.  Its hot on military social networks.

The funny thing?  I feel sorry for this little girl.  She ran head long into a buzz saw of pissed military members and is getting pounded and dare I say harassed for saying something stupid at a very sensitive time for many.

I did the little Google thing and checked out her YouTube page and she appears to be a typical teenage/20 something that has spent too much time at the trough of liberal thinking.

Nothing special about that.

She's young.  She said something stupid.  I'm sure we'll hear or read a semi-formal apology soon.

But ignoring the insanity of what this person said, it does make me wonder about a bigger issue.

Has the military/vets/active/retired become an interest group?

What makes me ask is the President's speech today and the pack mentality on this silly statement made by a confused child.  The President talked about increased funding to the VA, how many vets are now receiving benefits that weren't before, and then finally tried to sell his Iran nuke deal.

Have we devolved from being citizens that did what most wouldn't to another group of people that thinks we're special?

The UK bet on the F-35 and lost big....

via The Daily Telegraph.

Britain’s fighter aircraft fleet is set to shrink to its smallest in the RAF’s history as ageing jets retire by the end of the decade, a new analysis warns.
Numbers will be squeezed to only around 127 front line combat jets at best under current plans to retire Britain’s Tornado GR4s and early model Typhoons in 2019, before new F-35 stealth fighters arrive.
Defence chiefs have already warned that the RAF’s fast jet fleet is stretched to the limit and the new analysis from IHS Jane’s warns it is “perverse” to cut numbers further.
The RAF’s 87 remaining Tornados and 53 tranche 1 Typhoons are scheduled to retire in 2019.
By then, only 15 to 20 of the new F-35B jump jets will have arrived according to the analysis. The resulting fleet will be “the lowest number that the RAF will have fielded since its creation in 1918”.
The RAF’s reduced fighter fleet will be made up of technically advanced planes but “no aircraft, no matter how capable, can be in more than one place at any time”, said Gareth Jennings, aviation desk editor at Jane’s.

If that isn't bad enough the 800 pound gorilla in the room is the fact that the F-35 will not deliver the same capability as the planes it will replace.

The good news is that this explains the desperation around the F-35.

Unless they get it into production NOW you'll see air forces around the world bailing.  It also explains why the DoD wants the Super Hornet line shut down.  Defense Ministries are going to have to explain why this new wonder jet is draining coffers.  Alternatives will be sought and the Super Hornet would be at the top of many lists.

The Brits are royally screwed (pun intended).

They're about to go from a first rate air force to has beens all thanks to the idiotic focus on buying the F-35.

Major Phil "Hands" Handley...first supersonic gun kill...to a fighter pilot speed is life!

The "Dog Fights" series is a precious jewel.

They inform the uninformed about military that has been lost.  What has everyone's attention in this episode is Major Phil "Hands" Handley's first and only supersonic gun kill.

The whole vid is worth a watch, but what caught my attention is the battle between the F-86 and Mig-15.

Are we gonna see the future repeat the past?

What I mean is you see historical accounts of Mig's flying high, diving down on F-86's and then zooming back up to height and zooming away.  The Migs got into trouble when they stayed and played OR were ambushed by the F-86's.

Is that how the fight between the F-35 and S-35 play out?

COME ON NAVY! Appearance is important in the Pacific!

SOUTH CHINA SEA (July 20, 2015) - A Sikorsky S-70B Seahawk from the Republic of Singapore Navy lands on the littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) during deck landing qualifications as part of Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Singapore 2015. CARAT is an annual, bilateral exercise series with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and the armed forces of nine partner nations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joe Bishop/Released)

Geez!

Some of you guys are gonna go off, but the Navy has to get the look of this ship together.  Call it perception, call it a cultural bias....I really don't care, but the US Navy can't have a warship operating in the Pacific that looks like a bag of ass.

The USS Fort Worth looks like a bag of ass!

Additionally they're talking about having some of these ship forward based in Singapore!

Singapore!

The cleanest freaks in a region of clean freaks!

Its a small thing but the Navy has to get this together.  Public perception of our Navy is gonna take a nose dive because of this.  If you've spent more than 10 minutes in the region then you'll know I'm right.

Square your shit away Navy!

15th MEU Battalion Landing Team marksmanship training on deck.... photos by Sgt. Emmanuel Ramos

HELL YEAH!  Get some boys!  New Marine Corps in-house motto?....

Primitives in the Middle East were just a warm  up.  The big fight is yet to come...