USS Wasp. Missing in Action for over 10 years...

via Marine Corps Times (2012)

Instead of loading up hundreds of Marines and their gear from a Marine expeditionary unit for extended operations with an amphibious ready group — like all other amphibious assault ships — the Norfolk, Va.-based Wasp has been held out of the deployment rotation and generally kept close to home.

Then this...

Spokesmen in several Navy and Marine Corps commands repeatedly declined to answer that question, pointing to the JSF test mission. The decision to use the ship in that role, Kafka said, was made in 2009.
"That's a CYA [cover-your-ass] reason. That is not the reason it's not deploying," said one retired Marine general. "It doesn't seem to make sense to keep one of these ships out of the deployment rotation for so many years."
Several sources privately echoed those thoughts, suggesting that something more fundamental is wrong or deficient with the ship. Some rumors suggest a deficiency in the ship's combat system.
The Navy adamantly denies any major defect or operational limitation on Wasp.
"We are not familiar with any deficiencies in the combat system," said Chris Johnson, a spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command.

This story is from 2012.

The Wasp still hasn't been on a major deployment.  This is a scandal that is of epic proportions but doesn't get any attention.  Think about it like this.  A big deck amphib usually has a service life of about 20-30 years.  If the same holds true for the Wasp then its spent either half or one third of its service life NOT doing the job it was intended to do.

This is unsat.  Someone needs to fry.

Watch Saudi Arabia. Saudi King hospitalized...

Thanks to MicMac80 for the link!

via FARS...

TEHRAN (FNA)- Sources revealed on Tuesday that Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz has been hospitalized in Riyadh and is now in critical health conditions.
Informed sources told Arabic-language al-Ahd news agency that King Salman is now in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) section of King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Saudi capital.
The sources also said that given the Saudi king's unstable and aggravating health conditions, officials have ceased plans to transfer him to US hospitals.
King Salman, 80, is thought to have Alzheimer’s or dementia and the government is practically administered by his Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef.
According to witnesses, his exact state of dementia is a source of speculation but he is known to have held cogent conversations as recently as last October. He can also forget what he said minutes ago, or faces he has known all his life. This is typical of the disease.
Sources close to the Saudi monarchy revealed earlier this year that the number of hospital visits by King Salman in the last few months has increased and that he did not walk around, as he did before.

This could be big if the Saudi King takes a turn for the worse.

Yemen is still burning and from where I'm sitting the Saudi Arabian/GCC forces are bogged down...ISIS is still rampaging...Syria is a mess and the Russians have landed to prop up Assad....and the US still doesn't have a coherent policy in the Middle East.

If this guy dies then all bets are off.  I don't think we'll see a smooth transition and instead will see a major power struggle in the Kingdom.

Will someone try and take advantage?  Who knows but this bears watching.

Is a Navy SEAL's arrogance/quest of fame endangering his family?

via Daily Mail...

A British ISIS supporter has published the name and address of the Navy Seal who killed Osama bin Laden and called on American extremists to execute him.
Mirror Online has been monitoring jihadi chat on social media and has spotted several people linking to a text file containing instructions on how to find Robert O'Neill, who claimed to have killed the al Qaeda chief.
This information was shared by an unnamed British extremist, who dubbed O'Neill a "number one target" and called for his immediate death.
The address is now being shared on social media along with a sinister hashtag.
Dozens of extremists have now republished the Navy Seal's private information, despite apparent censorship attempts by social media firms and the website which is hosting the information.

Here.

I don't know the internal discussions in Navy SEAL land and their reactions to all the talking, book and movie deals.

I don't know how they reacted to former Bull Frog Admiral McRaven "dancing in the spotlight" as he was accused of doing by a retired US Army Special Forces General.

I do know that this type of reaction by the enemy should have been expected.

O'Neill wrote a tell-all, claimed to have kill Bin Laden, made I don't know how much money and now he has put a bulls-eye on his family's back (or the poor hapless souls that buy his house without knowing that its a potential terrorist target).

SOCOM is broken.  Somewhere along the line they went from being "silent professionals" to chest thumpers.  This is an example of how far off track they've gone.  I hope some of the retired/former members grab this gen by the collar and provide some guidance.  There are future fights waiting that will test them in ways that Iraq and Afghanistan hasn't.

Turkey says Russian action "no big deal"...Russia puts forces on the ground..

via RT...

The incident, which occurred on Saturday, saw Turkey scramble two F-16 jets after a Russian military aircraft crossed into Turkish airspace near the Syrian border.
Ankara also claimed that a MiG-29 fighter jet, which is used by both Russia and Syria, harassed two of its F-16’s on Sunday by locking radar on to them, as they patrolled the Turkish-Syrian border.
“Our position is very clear, we’ll warn any country that violates our borders in a friendly way. Russia is our friend and neighbor. There is no tension between Turkey and Russia in this sense. The issue of Syria is not a Turkish-Russian crisis,”Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told HaberTurk TV, as cited by the Hurriyet Daily, following diplomatic communications between Ankara and Moscow.
"What we have received from Russia this morning is that this was a mistake and that they respect Turkey's borders and this will not happen again," Davutoglu added.
The Russian Defense Ministry has said that bad weather caused the incident when Russian combat aircraft violated Turkish airspace

Told ya so.

Some of you guys that were talking about this incident leading to  conflict must live in some pretty soft places...like in a USAF dormitory.

Sidenote:  The New York Times is just now reporting that 2500 Russian ground troops will soon be hitting the deck.  We were talking about that last week!  The media, administration and apparently the Pentagon/State Dept are all behind the power curve on this issue.

The USMC becomes "gender" normed...

via Marine Corps Times...

At the end of the Marines' nine-month study, only two women in the infantry-trained rifleman platoons were left standing. There were roughly two dozen women in the infantry company when the experiment began, but most were dropped due to injury.
The new requirements could be difficult for some men entering into certain MOSs as well. During the experiment, Capt. Mark Lenzi, the commanding officer of the weapons company, which consisted of machine gun, anti-armor and mortar platoons, said some male Marines aren't up to the tasks that come with serving in the infantry.
Sometimes, he said, unit leaders are forced to give weaker Marines an administrative or clerical position in order to avoid moving them out of the unit. Gender-neutral standards would prevent that Marine from ever joining a unit with which they can't keep up, he said.
"If you're [5 feet, 6 inches tall] and 120 pounds, you have virtually no chance of doing this job, whatsoever," Lenzi said.
The Marines' study has led to controversy, however. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus called the experiment flawed, and alleged that some male Marines went into it not wanting to see the women succeed. He also criticized the Corps for measuring average performance instead of looking at individual capabilities.
But the Marine involved with the study fired back at Mabus' remarks. When the study began, researchers went into it with the expectation that they would see no differences between the all-male teams and those that included women, he said.

The main takeaway?

Haynie and the bastards at USNI Blog won.  Why others did not speak up sooner is beyond me, but this is the beginning of the end.  I wonder why reality is so hard for so many to accept.  This statement stands out....

 "If you're [5 feet, 6 inches tall] and 120 pounds, you have virtually no chance of doing this job, whatsoever," Lenzi said.

I wonder what Colonel Ripley and the other Marine Corps greats would say about what they're seeing happening to their beloved Corps....I also wonder what they would tell the instigators and enablers of this stupidity (yeah...looking at you USNI Blog).

Consider me a walking, talking, anti-recruiter.  When a young man asks about the Corps I'll be honest.  I'll say I loved it.  When he asks if he should join I'll tell him FUCK NO. 

Russia locks on to a Turkish jet. Big deal...wake me when something real happens.

Just got back and I'm digging thru comments and reading e-mail and the popular thing is the Russians locking onto a Turkish jet.

Big Fucking Deal!

As Clinton would say its a big nothing burger.

How quickly even military minded people forget.  The US Navy has been playing reindeer games with the Chinese for years.  We have Maritime Surveillance planes getting locked on, intercepted in aggressive way and many years ago had a collision forcing our plane down.

Nothing happened.

Not too long ago Syria shot down a Turkish F-4.

Nothing happened.

Now, this is being played up because it helps to push the Administration's meme that the Russian entry into Syria is going to be a major cluster.

I disagree.

This is nothing.  More dangerous stuff happens everyday guys.  Ask the guys on the DMZ in Korea.  Ask the guys flying missions to the Chinese border.  Ask the people on alert status in N. Europe.

This is just a case of boys being boys.  Wake me when something real happens.

Sidenote:  If you've been a watcher of NATO and the US defense establishment then you should know one thing.  The louder they are in the press, the less likely military action will occur.  They've been shouting this to the rooftops because they're impotent.  There is nothing they can do because the leadership hasn't decided on a real course of action.  So what do we get?  We get sensationalized headlines that thrill the ill informed.

What happened to "Helicopter Offensive/Defensive Counter Air" Doctrine?

Above you see an AH-1W Super Cobra firing a Sidewinder air to air missile.  Pretty impressive in my opinion, but we haven't seen it demonstrated in the last 20 or so odd years.  Why?

What happened to "Helicopter Offensive/Defensive Counter Air" Doctrine?

Step back in time to the late 80's-mid/late 90's and you'll see vids and find all kinds of info on helicopter air to air combat.  During the preliminary stages of the first Gulf War (planning), it was considered within the realm of the possible...A-10 pilots were licking their lips and Super Cobra, Apache, Kiowa and Huey pilots were steeling themselves to possible engage Iraqi Helicopters in what many envision as the ultimate low speed furball.

It never happened.  The military lost interest.  The Russian KA-52 turned out to be a "regular" attack helicopter instead of the feared dedicated anti-helicopter helicopter.

Fast forward to today and we see the Chinese developing a new light weight attack helicopter (read the story here), the proliferation of UAVs worldwide and stories out of Ukraine where infantry is not only worried about enemy patrols, checkpoints and minefields (this was from the story of a Ukrainian squad E&E back to their lines) but also those low flying UAVS.

Is it time to bring back the helicopter offensive/defensive counter air doctrine?  Should we give this additional task to our AH-1Zs and UH-1Ys?

I think so...with perhaps a concentration on destroying enemy UAVs to keep the situational awareness advantage that HQMC is betting everything on.

Now we have a nutcase threatening to shoot up Philadelphia universities...

Story here.

Question.  The FBI/ATF have access to all the intel from the mass surveillance going on in this country.  Surely there is no such thing as an anonymous site anymore.  So why don't they use that info to go out and arrest this bastard for X-number of terroristic threats (one for each student in a local school, community college, college or university)?

Indonesian Marines are stupid crazy!

Foxtrot Alpha has the vid and a nice article on this here.

The Russians are winning the Syria propaganda war.

Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia:"If it looks like a terrorist, if it acts like a terrorist, if it walks like a terrorist, if it fights like a terrorist, it's a terrorist. Right?"

See his whole statement (and vid) here.

I just realized why the Russian actions in Syria sing to so many military blogs and why Putin is gaining grudging admiration in the West.

He's the polar opposite of Obama.  Don't get it twisted and don't be obscene. The guy is a former KGB Agent, not a law professor.  He speaks clearly and plainly.  Obama parses and at least from my chair confuses the issue and has difficulty making decisions.

I believe this is something the political elite don't understand.  Its why Bush Jr was cheered for so long ... while Bush Jr wasn't a darling at the Washington DC dinner circuit, he was able to reach the average American.

Lavrov cracked the code.  He's doing to Kerry what his boss is doing to Obama.  He's generating fans because he's speaking clearly.  Additionally while many Americans and Europeans have watched the Middle East burn, only the Russians are acting decisively while all we hear from the Pentagon is that this will take a long time and from the State Dept that we need to accept refugees.

The Russians are winning the propaganda war big time.

Sidenote:  This is before you factor in the news that the Free Syria Army has aligned with terrorists.  Now you can expect the US public to say "fuck'em all". The State Dept, Pentagon and White House have lost the narrative.  How do they get it back?  I have no idea.