Sea Basing 101 Document (2015)

Thanks to Lee for the link!

  Sea Basing 101

I'm glad Jihadi John is dead but why is our warfare so personalized?

via BBC

US forces have carried out a drone strike in Syria against the Islamic State group militant "Jihadi John".
A US military source said there was a "high degree of certainty" he had been killed in Thursday's attack near Raqqa.
PM David Cameron said although it was not yet certain whether the strike had been successful, targeting Mohammed Emwazi was "the right thing to do".
The Kuwaiti-born British militant appeared in videos of the beheadings of Western hostages.
It is believed there was one other person in the vehicle targeted in the strike.

Here.

I'm glad this bastard is dead.  Don't get me wrong.  He was pure evil and seemed to revel in his acts of barbarity.

But when did and why is our nation state warfare so personalized?

Think about it.  We sent a drone on a mission to kill one man!  I'm of the belief that the people that are operationally important are never seen on camera.  The people that make ISIS "win" on the battlefield aren't the guys making YouTube videos.

I might be way off base here but the battlefield is where it gets "personal", airstrikes should be looking to cause certain effects.  That one drone flight could easily have been used to destroy ISIS infrastructure, armored vehicles and training camps.  Instead it was used to hunt down one guy....a useful idiot that had blood lust.

Yeah.  The world is a better place with him dead....but is our war against ISIS served by using so many resources to whack him?

While we're waiting on news of the ACV, Venezuela gets new Tracked and Wheeled Amphibious Vehicles...

Thanks to Max for the link!

Word is its being delayed.  Meanwhile in Venezuela, they are getting brand new Chinese wheeled and tracked amphibious vehicles.  Story here...vid below.



What is the water speed for that track?  It looks faster than our own AAV...not faster than the canned EFV but faster than our legacy vehicle.

But the big question for me is this.  How can a backward, tiny, damn near communist, economic basket case S. American country get its armored house in order but the mighty US Marine Corps be stuck on stupid?

Putin and the "secret" material that got televised...

via Defense Talk

Two Russian television channels have unintentionally aired footage containing confidential information on military weapon systems, Russian officials said. The pictures allegedly showed plans for a nuclear torpedo.
The televised images show a military officer looking at a confidential document during a meeting of President Putin with army top brass in Sochi.
“It’s true some secret data got into the shot, therefore it was subsequently deleted,” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists on Wednesday.
Two Kremlin-controlled channels, NTV and Channel One, broadcast the video on Tuesday before discovering the mistake. Although the original footage was deleted, several websites still published screenshots from it.
The document, clearly visible for several seconds, showed drawings and information on a nuclear torpedo, allegedly being developed by Rubin, a nuclear submarine construction company from St. Petersburg.
The Status-6 torpedoes would target “economically important enemy facilities in coastal regions” by creating “zones of extensive radioactive contamination making them unsuitable for military or economic activity for a long period,” the document says.
Missiles to beat the shield
It was not immediately clear how the pictures got on air in what are usually carefully controlled reports.
“In future we will undoubtedly take preventive measures so this does not happen again,” Peskov said.

Everyone has been all in arms about this.

I've watched and read all the talk and I'm amazed that people are actually buying this.

Putin is old school KGB.  These aren't the type of mistakes that he would make. Not even rank amateurs would get caught like this.  Putin travels with a security detail.  They would sweep the area before he walked into a room and they would be savvy enough to realize if something confidential was laying about...especially since they knew that the news media was trailing him.

This is a planted story.  I would bet body parts on it.

So the question must be asked.  What message are the Russians trying to send?

Did this cop cross the line or justified?

I want to get the pulse of the crowd.  Did the cop cross the line in the above vid or is it justified?

I look forward to your comments....

We're delaying the ACV and buying a plane that needs to be fixed after we get it????

Thanks to Don for the link!

I'm waiting for an answer to whether or not the ACV is being once again delayed like the little birdy that landed on my window sill is claiming.  If it is then WTF!  You know the culprit and so do I...the F-35.  But do you know, or rather do you remember this info bomb that the Program Office dropped on us?  via Defense News...

"So when we have those 493 airplanes out in the field in 2019, guess how many will be in what I consider to be the right configuration? Not a one," Bogdan said. "Every airplane coming off the line now and coming off in the next two and a half years, plus all the airplanes we've built already, will need some form of modification to get them up to the full capability that we promised the war fighter."
Each aircraft confined to the depot for modification is one less plane the services can use to train pilots and maintainers, Bogdan emphasized. This is a particular problem for the Air Force, which must meet certain training requirements in order to declare IOC in 2016.
To address this gap, the JPO is sending field teams to do F-35A depot work at the bases, rather than bringing the jets to the depots, Bogdan said. This saves time on the front and back end of the process, allowing the maintenance teams to move the jets through modifications more quickly.
The Air Force also may be able to borrow Navy and Marine Corps planes, or even jets from partner nations, to complete some training, Bogdan said.
"The biggest constraint to the mod program right now other than money — because it costs an awful lot of money to do that — is can the service, can the partner afford to keep the airplane down that long without their pilots flying?" Bogdan said. "So we have to try to balance that."

This plane is WRECKING the USMC's budget.  Its just not fucking worth it!

Sidenote:  Only the US Govt...and now the United States Marine Corps would ever consider buying something brand new with the knowledge that it doesn't meet specifications!  Can you imagine buying a brand new Ford F-150 Raptor 4x4 with the knowledge that the transmission needs to be fixed and the dashboard displays don't accurately tell you your speed?  Simply Amazing!

Amphibious Combat Vehicle to be delayed again? Budget woes cited?

A little birdy dropped a note in my inbox saying that the ACV will be delayed once again and budget woes will be claimed as the reason for the delay.

I sincerely hope that someone is just jerking my chain, but I'm gonna fire off a e-mail to that office in a few to get the real deal.

The problem?  It wouldn't surprise me if its true.  More to come....but I need to wait.  Never communicate with HQMC when you're pissed.  It never ends well.  Some lessons you never forget.

FC-31 Stealth Fighter to equip Chinese Air Force...

via Defense Tech...

What’s more, the FC-31 is apparently no longer simply intended for export, as the officials said talks were underway to supply the aircraft to the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, the article states.

Hmmm.  Do you really think that we shouldn't be starting on a 6th gen airplane right now?  Even if it isn't superior to the F-35 it will be produced in more numbers.  It'll also be faster, fly higher, be more maneuverable and have better range.  The procurement model failed on so many levels.... the decision to not cancel it once it became apparent that the F-35 wasn't viable and then the appearance of stealthy fighters from Russia, China, S. Korea, Japan etc...all that and more shows that someone made a big goddamn mistake!

Lt Gen Deptula (Ret) proposes retiring AH-64's to pay for A-10's! Budget wars begin!

via SLDInfo.

We can no longer afford individual services seeking self-sufficiency.

Let’s take the example of the A-10.

The Air Force would like to retain the A-10 but given the resource constraints mandated by the Congress reducing the Air Force budget, the Air Force must reduce force structure to meet that requirement. After extensive comparative analysis, terminating the A-10 would result in the least impact to the spectrum of capabilities provided by the Air Force.
The Army maintains a very large fleet of Apache helicopters that conduct close air support. The A-10 is a much more capable asset to conduct close air support. So why not retire a part of the Apache force to achieve the same cost savings as retiring the entire A-10 force–that would allow still retaining a significant number of Apaches in the Army–and also retain the more capable A-10 force?
The point is to think across service boundaries in the context of capability, not limit force structure trades inside service stovepipes.

Here.

Plain talk.  Marine Air Leadership has crawled into bed with SLDInfo in the push to make the Marine Corps more aviation centric.  I've screamed, yelled and pounded the table about what I saw as the real goal.

To not only destroy the Marine Air-Ground Team but also to pivot the entire force into a "mini-USAF" across the board.

I think this proves not only that, but also the idea that everything must die to push forward the F-35 AND the idea of an air centric US military posture.

Do me a favor though.  Follow the link and read the entire article.  Then consider this.  Deptula speaks for a large portion of the USAF.  Additionally he and SLDInfo throw up trial balloons for policy makers.  Think about his proposal. "Retire a portion of the Apache force to allow retaining the A-10"?  If I'm wrong about everything else, I'm spot on about the budget wars beginning.

French Army on exercise via Theatrum Belli

Check out TB's Flickr Page here.