LAV A2. A simple solution to the MPC issue.

The Marines already have a tailor made solution to the issue of what to buy for the Marine Personnel Carrier.  That solution is in production and being delivered today.  It would need minor modifications and is transportable by CH-53E/K.

Its the LAV-25A2.

Simply remove the turret, replace it with a remote weapon station and the issue is resolved.  Approval by the SecDef should be easy, it can be sole sourced (by passing competition) and it can be in the fleet by the 1st quarter of next year.  IF they act now.

USMC LAV A2

Amphibious warriors take SoCal beach

All photos courtesy of Gunnery Sgt. Scott Dunn

An amphibious assault vehicle from 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 1st Marine Division, lands on a beach here, Feb. 28, during a bilateral training exercise with various Marine units from Southern California and more than 180 soldiers of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force.

An amphibious assault vehicle from 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 1st Marine Division, lands on a beach here, Feb. 28, during a bilateral training exercise with various Marine units from Southern California and more than 180 soldiers of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force.

Amphibious assault vehicles from 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 1st Marine Division, land on a beach here, Feb. 28, during a bilateral training exercise with various Marine units from Southern California and more than 180 soldiers of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force

F-35B completes milestone.

via NAVAIR

PATUXENT RIVER, Md. -- On Feb. 26, 2011, an F-35B test aircraft (BF-2) completed its 100th flight with Lockheed Martin test pilot David "Doc" Nelson at the controls. The 100th flight for BF-2 accomplished further short take-off envelope expansion in preparation for shipboard testing later this year. The F-35B is the Marine Corps variant of the Joint Strike Fighter and is capable of short take-offs and vertical landings undergoing test and evaluation at NAS Patuxent River. Photo courtesy Lockheed Martin.

XC-142A

Modest Proposal. A new foreign policy.

Just joking (a little).  It would be nice if we actually talked to terrorist, despots and dictators like this.

An air to air load out?

People like to believe that the above photo illustrates a common air to air load out for modern fighters....

Not hardly folks...its just a glamour shot...nothing more or less.

Lets get the discussion on actual combat loads back into the realm of reality.

UPDATE.

I haven't read this issue of Aviation Week (but I plan to once I visit my local bookstore) but it has the best image I've seen of the "evolved" Super Hornet.

Note that in its stealth configuration, designed to go head up against the F-35---it limits its weapons load to perhaps 6 air to air missiles (I think in its current configuration its 4) so again...another quiver in my argument about fantasy combat versus its reality.

British SAS rescue civilians in Libya.

Thanks Marcase for the heads up and the article.  Via The Independent.

British special forces last night mounted a daring rescue of 150 civilians trapped in the Libyan desert.

As the security situation deteriorated, SAS troops were deployed to evacuate oil workers from several isolated desert camps south of Benghazi.

One senior source said: "It had been planned for a few days, covering an area four and half times the size of the UK." Landing strips near remote oilfields had to be secured, with stranded civilians collected from several sites. The rescue was ordered by David Cameron, who chaired a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee yesterday morning.

The British government has acted forcefully to secure its citizens in the wake of violence in a war torn country, the same cannot be said for the US.

US Navy fights the FBI over hostage killing.

Via CNN. 

Before two pirate leaders departed the yacht where they held four Americans earlier in February, a maritime source says they left instructions: kill the hostages if we do not come back from negotiations.

U.S. officials took the negotiating pirates into custody -- a move which goes against standard negotiation practices, the source said.

One thing is certain.  The US Navy is attempting to make sure that the word gets out that this "fiasco" wasn't there fault.  They're definitely pointing fingers at the FBI Hostage Negotiators.  What isn't known and what I'm extremely curious about is whether this comes from Headquarters Navy or whether this is coming from some Fleet Command.

Marine landing at Da Nang

Gates turns his gaze toward the US Army.

via Military.com

Gates told the cadets that as the Army competes for money in the tightening economy, it must realize that high-end conflicts will mainly require Navy and Air Force engagements, not a head-on clash of big land forces. The Army must not lose its ability to wage the kind of irregular warfare it has honed on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, and be prepared to face off against insurgents, militia groups and rogue states.

Gates also warned the cadets that the U.S. so far has a perfect record of never accurately predicting what the next war will be. But one thing, he said, is certain.

Any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should "have his head examined," Gates said.

Beesley...Things to remember about the F-35.

Thanks Dewline.

Mutual Destruction. Close in aerial combat has changed.

Python-5

ASRAAM

AIM-9X

The pictures above display just a few of the "within visual range" missiles that have driven the thought behind aerial combat in today's age.

Everyone points to Vietnam as the foundation of modern combat and the need to retain guns on aircraft.  Modeling and simulation have shown that not to be the case.

Detect with systems, enemy aircraft at distance.  Launch at optimum distance.  Break contact to re-arm, refuel and return to the fight.

If close in combat is the rule then this airplane would rule the skies...