Finally real talk about our current foreign policy debate.

An honest critique about the current debate in this country regarding our ongoing wars. Refreshig and depressing at the same time.

31stMEU-Harriers conduct night landings while at sea

HMS Ark Royal to be sold for scrap.

via the Telegraph.

HMS Ark Royal, once the bullish symbol of Britain’s defence diplomacy, will follow the ignominious fate of her sister ship HMS Invincible by ending life as a razor blades.

There had been strong indications that she would sold to a British diving company and sunk off the Devon coast to become a major scuba diving attraction.

An estimated bid of £6.5 million was submitted to purchase the ship that as a diving reef could have contributed up to £30 million to the local economy

Wow.

Just fucking wow.

Read the entire article but the other options were for the ship to be turned into a casino in China, a museum, a London heliport or a NIGHT CLUB!

31stMEU Harriers join 31st MEU at sea

Think Defence on the containerized missile threat.

"Our systems are programmed to recognise the distinctive shapes and signatures.

Put them inside the ubiqutous ISO container however, and things get complicated.

In a crowded, complex, congested and contested area of operations how would we first identify one of these?"

--Think Defence on the threat posed by containerized missiles.

Read his whole post here.  Note.  He was onto this threat before I was.

XC-142A Operational Suitability Testing (1965)

Too good to keep to myself.  Quite honestly I've been trying to figure out how to download this vid of the XC-142A undergoing Operational Suitability Testing.  I still can't get it and I've tried Download Helper, a couple of script keys and other add-ons.  The Texas Archive of Moving Image and Vought Aircraft Heritage Foundation are my new heroes.  Check it out here.

 

Photos are from the San Diego Air and Space Museum FLICKR page.

Newsreel. Vietnam heats up & XC-142A

Could the EC725 Caracal's Weapon System work on the MV-22?

Make note of how they've attached the weapon systems to the fueslage.  With them being that close in and with chutes to direct spent brass away from the rotors underneath the airplane this might work.  Add to it a smaller rocket launcher and the addition of guided rockets and you have a real assault craft.

Maybe.  Maybe it could work.

Thank God the Brits are so into music and soccer.

Thank God the Brits are focusing on their brand of music and soccer.  If they paid attention to what was going on in Afghanistan we'd be facing a serious diplomatic incident and we'd probably have to fight to keep a couple of our pilots from being charged in their courts.

Don't get me wrong.  I realize that mistakes happen but check out a few passages from the BBC and their reporting on the Coroners Inquest...

The Apaches were eventually called off and waited in the area while other helicopters were summoned to evacuate casualties.
The pilot of Luger 61 said in his statement how he noted the men on the ground were wearing vests and what appeared to be body armour.
L/Cpl Roney, from Sunderland could not survive his injuries and died the next day.

+

Earlier, the inquest heard how British officer Capt Christopher Dadd shouted "stop, stop, stop" when he realised the helicopters were mistakenly attacking the base.

Capt Dadd was in the operations room when he realised what was happening, the inquest was told.
Warrant Officer John Pepper said operations room staff realised the error and tried to halt the attack.
He was in the operations room on the ground some distance away from the base handling information coming in from members of the battlegroup.
WO Pepper said he was watching on a screen as the helicopters made one of three strafing runs when his superior, Capt Dadd, became aware of what was happening.
Carried on firingWO Pepper told the inquest: "Capt Dadd shouted 'Stop, stop, stop'. That was when everyone realised in the ops room they were attacking Patrol Base Almas.
"He had his head in his hands."
L/Cpl Johnny Cassell told the hearing the leader of the platoon at the patrol base, Capt Palmer Winstanley, appeared to be weeping when he contacted the Ops room to tell them to call off the helicopters.
Cpl Ben Hall, one of the troops who came under fire from the US crew, said his men carried on firing on the enemy, despite the onslaught from above.
Once the Apaches were called off an air strike was called in on the enemy position and a 500lb bomb brought a halt to the Taliban attack

Yeah.

The pilot noted how the men on the ground were wearing vest and what appeared to be body armor.

Yeah.

The battle appears to have been raging from compound to compound (meaning that the Brits were in one compound and the Taliban in another).

Yeah.

This sounds like fangs were out and they wanted blood.  I would love to hear the conversation between the FAC and the pilots.

Yeah.

I'm absolutely positive that Captain Dadd will never get another unmedicated full nights sleep.

Yeah.

I'm glad the British people aren't paying attention.

Club K Missile System. Follow up.

Sorry gents.

This is one of two issues I can't let go of this weekend.  The other is the killing of British Soldiers by Apache Attack Helicopters.  More on that later.

But let me ask you to do this.

Look around your city or town.  Look at the construction sites.  Look at the big rigs on the road.

Look at all the shipping containers.

Imagine what would happen if a single container was smuggled into the US.  Imagine if it was launched at a big city.

Imagine if it hit nothing.

Imagine the terror.  Imagine if the people that claimed credit were from a terrorist organization.  A drug cartel.  A crimminal organization.

Do you think that such an act would affect world trade?  Do you not think that such an act would ground world trade to a halt?

That's my point with this.  I don't know what kind of controls are on this weapon.  But it has the ability to destabilize world trade just because of the way that its disguised.  If used with imagination these conventional weapons have the intimidation power of a nuclear weapon.

Think about that the next time you see a container at a local site.

Club K. Unrestricted Warfare Herald.

When these missiles first came out I discounted the threat.

But think about it.

At this very minute the Chinese could have a couple dozen waiting off shore at any time within range of our bases in San Diego, or Hawaii or wherever you see US Navy ships.  International trade and shipping have bright lines in the US.  With our enemies not so much.  Container ships could be used for preemptive strikes.  Land forces could easily come under attack from areas that were unexpected because all intelligence indicated in the area were a few merchant ships.

If the Club K were used creatively and to maximum effect it could prove to be one of the most devastating weapons on the planet.

This missile could herald an age of unrestricted warfare like we've never seen.  Answer this for me.  How do you conduct precision strikes on a target when its effectively camo'ed up to look like the same container that is used to ship over Nike running shoes?

Australian Navy Hobart Class Destroyer.

The Australian Navy...traditionally the smallest of the Australian services is putting itself in position to be the major force in that Defense establishment for the future.

Between the LHD's that they're buying...the LPD's that the swindled out of the Brits and the Hobart Air Defense Destroyers they're becoming a Navy dominate force.

No matter what anyone says a Marine Corps is inevitable. 

The Royal Australian Marine Corps.

I like the sound of that!

Sidenote:  Something to watch will be to see if any interest is expressed in upgraded AAVs.  If the Australians start doing more than teaming their Infantry Officers with our AAV platoons and actually send evaluators to check out the possibility of joining with the USMC, Japan and Brazil in buying updated vehicles then you'll know that an Australian Marine Corps is in the works.

Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System(NASAM) protects DC

Many thanks to Shady Paul for pointing this out!  Thanks buddy!

The US Marine Corps might not have a credible anti-air capability outside of its own fighter airplanes but our nations capital doesn't have that problem.

As a matter of fact they have a robust and capable system...the Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System.

Follow these links to see a containerized system on a roof top in the DC area and this one to see locations of other systems.

NOTE:
This is open source stuff so no OPSEC was violated.  Relax.

I'm a believer but this airplane (MV-22) is snake bit.

When it comes to MV-22 I'm a believer.

I believe it when they say that it brings new capabilities to the fight.  I believe it when they say that the airplane is an important part of the MEU.

I'm not sure I buy that the buy of these airframes shouldn't be curtailed and a cheaper option bought.  A piggyback on the Navy/Army buy of UH-60's could bring benefits that we aren't properly calculating.

But be that as it may, leadership is all in on the MV-22.  The Commandant himself showed up in Japan to defend the airplane to skeptical Japanese that don't want it based there.  Which brings us to this story.  via the Jacksonville Daily News.

An MV-22 Osprey remained on the ground in a field off of Lejeune Boulevard late Friday after making a precautionary landing Thursday that local residents say included smoke.
Christopher McFarland, of Ellis Park, said he and his wife are used to seeing Ospreys fly over their house because of their proximity to Marine Corps Air Station New River, but the aircraft flying over Thursday evening “sounded a little different.”
“It was definitely an emergency landing,” McFarland said, adding that the plane narrowly missed the tree line in their backyard was smoking on the way down.
Another Ellis Park resident, Deborah Zarinana, said she also saw smoke and felt her house shaking because the plane was so close to the tree line.
“It brushed the top of the trees, the belly of it did. You could see pinecones falling,” Zarinana said. “I was outside with my kids and they were freaking out.”
New River spokeswoman 1st Lt. Kristin Dalton said that the neighbors account was “probably accurate” and that the smoke was the result of “fluid leaking onto hot parts of the aircraft similar to if you spilt oil on a hot lawn mower.”
She said the pilots of the Osprey were prompted by multiple warning lights to land the plane as soon as possible, but could not confirm if the leaking fluid set off the warning lights.
But she added that “just because the aircraft was smoking and there was a fluid leaking does not mean that (the pilots) lost control of the aircraft in any way.”
“The pilots got a warning indication in the cockpit that required the aircraft to return to base as soon as possible,” Dalton said, adding that the addition of a second warning prompted the pilots to land the plane in the empty field, rather than make the trip back to base.
“Based on follow-on indications, and with safety being the top priority, the pilots made the precautionary landing in an open area,” Dalton said.
Military and civilian police officers quickly responded to the landing site, barricading the area with crime scene tape and calling it “a national security issue.”
Dalton said there were no injuries and the cause of the warning light indications is being looked into, but stressed that “there was no mechanical failure in any way.”
The plane was still in the field Friday evening, and Dalton said maintenance was being performed on the aircraft. She added that “as soon as maintenance crews complete any needed repair and testing, the aircraft will return to New River,” but could not confirm when the plane would be leaving the field.
Rick Murray, the owner of Fast Freddie’s, the bar the Osprey landed behind, said Marine Corps officials told him the plane would be leaving later Friday night. He added that because the plane was tucked behind the tree line and difficult to see from the road, he didn’t think its presence would have any effect on his business.
He said he was “glad everybody is OK.”
The neighboring business, Discovery Church, agreed. Melissa Kennedy, human resources director for Discover, said she thought it was “kind of ironic that the (military) is in the backyard because the heart and mission of our church is to support the military and military spouses.”
She said she hopes the attention given to the Osprey behind their building will draw attention to the church, too.
The Osprey, which flies like an airplane but can take off and land like a helicopter, belongs to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Training Squadron 204, according to its markings.
Japanese media who were in North Carolina covering the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, drove to Jacksonville Friday to get a shot of the Osprey, a plane that their officials have heavily criticized after the April 11 Morocco Osprey crash that killed two New River Marines and injured two others.
Multiple Ospreys are currently being deployed to American military bases in Japan, with much opposition from the Japanese, according to multiple reports from The Associated Press.

Japanese media was in the area.

Yeah the plane is snake bit but the STUPID public relations SPIN that the Marine Corps is trying to stuff down the throats of the public is ANNOYING.

You have Public Affairs Officers pushing the "precautionary landing" line when you have eye witnesses stating flat out that it was an EMERGENCY landing.

And that's the real story here.

Forget my doubts about costs and wanting the Marine Corps to become truly frugal with its defense dollars.

Forget the fact that the plane is having a spat of technical issues at the worst time possible.

What is truly annoying is that the public can no longer trust Marines to be brutally honest when it comes to even issues that aren't most favorable to our positions.  This story is an update.  The Public Affairs Officer that spoke to the press emphasized that it was a precautionary landing.

The reporter, SMELLING BULLSHIT, went back and talked to the residents.

They contradicted him and he was caught in a stupid lie.  Or fabrication.  Or spin.  Or whatever you want to call it.

It was stupid, it is unworthy of the Corps and its an indication of a drop off in standards.

What would the Marine greats think?  

The British slow boil.

If you thought Afghanistan was fucked up...and most people do, then consider the latest.

Not only do we have to worry about Blue on Green attacks, the Taliban shooting down our helicopters...but now we also have to consider the feelings of a justifiably pissed off ally.

I like monitoring the British and Australian Ministries of Defense because they're so similar to ours.  Maybe its a cultural thing..I don't know.  What I do know is that the Brits are in the middle of a slow boil over a disturbing incident that cost the life of one of their soldiers.

Ya see.

One of our AH-64's killed the son of one of our staunchest allies.

Check this out from the Daily Mail.

A 23-year-old soldier who was killed when a US Apache helicopter fired on a British base in Afghanistan died as a result of 'mistaken beliefs and cumulative failures', a coroner ruled today.
Lance Corporal Christopher Roney, from Sunderland, died from head injuries at Patrol Base Almas in Sangin on December 21 2009.
After a five-day hearing Sunderland Coroner Derek Winter listed a series of errors made leading up to the tragedy.
He ruled: 'L/Cpl Christopher Roney died as a consequence of assumptions made, mistaken beliefs and cumulative failures by friendly forces to appropriately assess the totality of their situational awareness in respect of the ongoing events at and in the vicinity of Patrol Base Almas on December 21 2009.
'The deployment and use by friendly forces of attack helicopters was done in circumstances that ought to have been assessed by them to conclude sooner than they did that their target was not an enemy force and that the attack should be aborted.'

Read the whole article but this is just a polite way of saying that not only did our pilots fuck up, but that they should have known better.

This is a pretty damning assessment especially after being engaged in combat for over 10 years.  Command and control should be better.  But before I stick my foot any further in my mouth let me say this as loud as I can...I WASN'T THERE SO I DON'T KNOW!

What I do know is this.

The Brits are pissed and this situation needs to be handled properly.

Friday Wallpaper.

Courtesy of Warrior Grip 

Face shoot the mother fucker!

US Army Air Defense. Ok, but what is the Marine Corps doing?

Loren Thompson has an article out which covers the US Army's current troubles in fielding a suitable anti-air system..

Army leaders have already figured out that one way in which they might make an important contribution to joint capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region is by providing air and missile defenses. Ground-based defenses against manned and unmanned aircraft are an Army specialty, and the Army has led national missile defense efforts since the Nike-Hercules program was begun in the 1950s. Although sea-based defenses such as the Navy's Aegis system typically provide greater flexibility, warships can't be everywhere and some threats are better addressed from land-based locations.
However, the Army shot itself in the foot just as the shift to conventional threats was commencing by dismantling its plans for future air defenses. Having invested billions of dollars with allies in developing next-generation systems that could remedy the deficiencies of its Cold War air defenses, it decided just as those programs were coming to fruition that overhead threats were not a priority. That decision contradicted the findings of its own warfighters in Iraq, who warned as far back as 2003 that cruise missiles made by China and other countries were able to circumvent the aging Patriot air defense system.

Sounds like trouble huh?  Read the whole thing but then ask yourself this.  At least the Army has the Patriot.  What does the Marine Corps have?

If my quick Google search is correct, 17 LAV-AD's (equipped with Stinger missiles and 25mm gatling gun) and stinger teams.

That's pretty jacked up.

Like Thompson says.  Warships can't be everywhere...and neither can Marine Air.  Especially if its been snatched by Theater Air Commanders for operations elsewhere.  If the current fad for jointness is any guide, we'll lose Marine Air faster than a school boy loses his virginity in a whore house.

Imagine this scenario.

An MEB is taking up defensive positions ... an enemy force is sending out warships, subs and aircraft in what looks like a rehash of the Battle of Midway.  Of course the Navy leaves to deal with the incoming threat.  Along with them goes the Air Force (remember Air-Sea Battle) and the MEB commander is left with only his helos.

Unfortunately for this guy, a deliberate attack on his positions is part of a secondary effort supported with high flying H-6K's, attack UAVs and helicopters.

The MEB can handle threat tanks, artillery and infantry with relative ease.  High flying threats are something else entirely.

Unless I'm wrong (and I standby waiting to be corrected) enemy air power can fly out of reach of current Marine air defense and pummel our positions.  What limited anti-air assets we do have can be identified and either avoided or neutralized by sacrificing a few UAVs to discover their positions.

Either we start planning now to integrate Army Air Defense Units with our MEB's and higher or we need to create credible anti-air units.

Stinger missiles and LAV-AD's aren't credible.  We had a possible answer (but even it was a stop gap) with the SLAMRAAM.  It got canceled.

What do we do.  What do we do?

 

Who We Are --LM Propaganda

A defense company you should know. LOMOcean.

Thanks again DWI!  Lovin' this stuff!

32m Stealth Boat.

32m Stealth Boat.

25m Stealth Boat.

18m Stealth Boat.

Remember the Indonesian Trimaran that was recently introduced into service?  Well this is the company that helped design that cutting edge piece of technology.

Its really not surprising because these are the same people that built the Earth Racer around the world endurance boat.

Check out these weirdly wonderful and fantastic designs here.

MPC contest gives us a chance to build Light Armored Infantry Battalions again.

Lockheed Martin Havoc sporting an Elbit 30mm RWS.

BAE SuperAV.

The Marine Personnel Carrier Contest.

First.  This should be a two vehicle race.  Lockheed Martin's Havoc versus BAE's SuperAV.  Sorry SAIC.  I don't see the Terrex fully meeting requirements and I don't think that you would be able to get enough production stateside to jump through the Congressional hoops that will be placed in front of you to be competitive.

General Dynamics.  You guys are pathetic.  You're basically hiding your vehicle from public view, in other competitions you're mailing it in with tired, old, busted designs that are not worthy of being considered and the last competition that you did win (the Brits contest) was based on a pure price shoot out.  The ASCOD is not competitive with the CV90.  You know it, we know it and the Brits knew it.  You won simply because you low balled everyone and they ignored the requirements that they laid out.  I expect the same with the Marine Personnel Carrier Contest and for that reason alone I would disqualify you.

But all this brings me back to the Havoc and the SuperAV.

We have a tremendous opportunity here.

We can re purpose our LAR Battalions and make them what they were originally and should be again.  Light Armored Infantry Battalions.

It will require a couple of things to happen.  First we'll have to divest ourselves of the LAV-25.  I don't see that as a problem.  We need a more capable vehicle that can carry more infantry anyway.  We also don't need a force that performs the Army's Calvary mission of screening and reconning by fire.  We're a truly combined force.  Aviation assets (to include UAVs) can perform that mission.  What we need are highly mobile infantry that can zoom around battlefields in a distributed battlefield and provide reinforcements to our infantry battalions mounted in AAVs during deliberate attacks.

What this will require in the end is a better explanation of our force requirements.  More billets will have to be alloted to the newly formed LAI Battalions to get them up to strength.  We will also need to explain to the powers that be that because the EFV was cancelled and because we're upgrading the AAV and buying a cost effective ACV, we no longer need a stop gap.

We will be buying a full allotment of ACVs.  About 1000.  And will need a full allotment of MPCs to replace the LAV-25.

Congress will go for it especially if the jobs from the production of these vehicles is in the US and we properly present the idea of this making the Marine Corps more combat effective than our current formations.

Cancelling the JLTV should help pay for some of the bill.  Not buying $50 dollar rifle slings should help too.