A400 News and a comment on their marketing campaign.

via EADS Press Release.

The second production Airbus Military A400M has successfully completed its first engine runs as it begins final preparation for its maiden flight later this month.
The aircraft, known as MSN8, is now undergoing taxying trials outside the A400M Final Assembly Line in Seville, Spain.
Airbus Military expects to complete four A400M aircraft in 2013 and will deliver MSN8 to the French Air Force in the third quarter of the year.

It occurred to me that the real problem with the A400 is how its been marketed.  From the very beginning they've taken aim at the C-130 in particular and the C-17 in general.

That was a mistake.  Perhaps a deadly mistake when it comes to the production/sales success of this airplane.  The reason for this is relatively simple.  EADS has always made it money by developing 'tweener' airplanes...in other words airplanes between two different classes of a rivals product.  They did the same here.  The problem was that they chose to make false comparisons.

They should have simply said that the airplane was designed to fill a gap in the market and touted it as a SUCCESSOR to the C-141...but with more rough field capability.

That would have been a win for the program and the results would probably be an easier gateway to selling some examples to the USAF and other air arms around the world.

Marketing.  Real simple but most companies screw it up.

British Forces News FINALLY reports on the attack.

I AM SO TIRED OF POLITICIANS THAT BELIEVE THAT THEIR WORDS MATTER!

They don't!  Only actions are worthy of note.  Words cost nothing.

Notice the quiet, almost female like tone taken by these men?  No bass in their voices at all.  And yet we're to believe that men like these are going to act forcefully against terrorist?

Britain is screwed.

Self Defense in the age of terrorist targeting civilians.

The recent terror attack against the 25 year old British Soldier should chill the bones of everyone. (the fact that it doesn't is still annoying to no end...but thats a different subject...the apologist can meet their fate and I won't care at all).

How do you protect yourself when faced with an attack like we saw the other day?

Awareness.Those bastards used a car to run over their victim before they set upon him.  If he was in condition yellow MAYBE (and I say that guardly...I wasn't there and don't know) he could have avoided being hit by the car which was the initiator of the violence.
Unrelenting, violent resistance.Take what you're hearing from law enforcement professionals and toss it into the trash.  Violent crime...even armed robbery will cost the criminal years in prison (well maybe not in the Northeast but the rest of the US) so the first and best witness is the victim.  It pays for them to either frighten the victim so much that they fear reporting it or, if they want to be sure, kill them.  Knowing that you should resist to the best of your abilities.  If you have the understanding that this person is seeking to hurt you and cannot be reasoned with (unlike the bystanders of the British terrorist attack) then you realize that you must meet their aggression with aggression of your own and then surpass it to assume a position of dominance over them.  If you succeed, then also understand that they would have shown you no mercy.  Don't give them any.
Don't rely on tech.Are you one of those that have decided  that you won't you deadly force?  Do you believe that pepper spray or a taser is good enough?  Well let me educate you to the flaws in that thinking.  Most people buy pepper spray and if they carry it then its a tiny bottle good enough for one use, they don't test the bottles because its such a small container and subject it to riding in a pocket or purse being subjected to all kinds of abuse.  Notice that the people that do use it on a continuous basis (law enforcement), carry it in a separate holder on their belts, test spray it at least weekly (if they don't actually use it in the line of duty) and replace it after about a year. The downside of pepper spray is that you can build immunity.  If you are in the military you have to qualify with it annually (depending on your job and rank) which means getting sprayed.  If you use it often you'll build up immunity.  If you've been sprayed with it often likewise.  Pepper spray is hardly the deterrent many believe.  Same goes with tasers.  They're rarely used, rarely tested and the biggest failure point is weak batteries.
Train, train and train.I once knew fight dynamics cold but its getting a bit fuzzy.  Definitely time to pull out the notebooks, but a quick overview goes like this.  When you're going to engage in combat, you first recognize that you're in a fight.  This causes the brain to put the body into an immediate fight/flight mode.  You're going to get hit with a massive adrenalin dump.  Heart will beat faster, blood will flow from your extremities to your core to prep your body for battle and if you're inexperienced you will probably stop breathing (for a breath or two).  If you recognized that the attack was coming  then you're halfway to meeting the aggression of the person coming at ya.  If you didn't then you're way behind the power curve and trying to catch up.
How do you defeat body dynamics that in some ways put you at a disadvantage.  You train.  Train to be alert, train to be capable of putting up a credible fight, train with the tools that you're going to engage a bad guy with in a fight, practice carrying those tools with you at all times.
You train for every conceivable situation you can think of, you avoid going to places where people act stupidly and you're aware that being in a major city is a dangerous thing regardless of how well you've prepped yourself.

I've noticed that between the Boston bombing, the FBI shooting of their terrorist accomplice (yeah they said there wasn't an active terror cell too) and now this attack in London, its obvious that we're entering a new phase of the war on terror.

Unlike the last phase, this will be a law enforcement led effort.

The FBI was aware of the bombers and MI-5 was aware of the London attackers.

Do you think that they're going to protect you when they couldn't prevent those attacks.  Your self defense is your responsibility.  I hope you pick up the challenge.

For my fellow gun guys.  If you're a gun guy then you're like me.  You workout and train.  You're aware of your surroundings, don't go to places where stupid people do stupid things and unless its an emergency you won't be slinking around at 2am chasing tail.  Good, so this is actually fluff for you.  You already know all this.  But let me ask you this.  Do you carry at least two spare mags with you?  A religious fanatic, drugged up or determined criminal won't be stopped with just a few hits.  Check out the paper below.  Its a pain but carry those spare mags!

  Print Story _ Why one cop carries 145 rounds of ammo on the job - PoliceOne

The victim in the British terror attack.

Lee Rigby.  25 years old.

Look carefully at the picture.

Then ponder this.  I've been bombarded with emails that express sympathy for his killers.  People have expressed a desire of leniency for the murderers.

Not one of them talked about the victim.  Just a bunch of politically correct, pseudo-intellectual bullshit.

I have nothing but hate for those people.  A British citizen...a soldier was killed on the streets of London...and instead of outrage they think the proper response is what we saw on the street.  Calmly talking to madmen.  Sad.  Amazing.  But we are talking about a society that embraces passivity.  Lets make sure we don't import that type of response to our shores.  

India's 99th Mountain Brigade and the 82nd Airborne train at Yudh Abhyas 2013

Its interesting that the Indian Defense Ministry chose to send their Mountain Brigade to this exercise.  Considering the issues that they've been having with the Chinese, its probably a wise move.  Pics depict both an air assault demonstration and a "hollywood" jump from CH-47s.  Also note that the T-11 seems to be in widespread use.

BAE SuperAv 8x8 Closeup of the roof.

Army talking about shedding Strykers, bringing back Light Infantry!

via the Seattle Times.

"We have three additional Stryker brigades at Fort Lewis (Wash.) that we didn't have 10 years ago," said Lt. Gen. Frank Wiercinski, who will soon step down as head of the Fort Shafter command. "That's a lot of Stryker brigades."
The fifth Stryker brigade is based in Alaska.
Wiercinski told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Hawaii's Stryker Brigade could revert to a light infantry unit without the armored vehicles.
He said that Hawaii's 25th Infantry Division has just one light infantry brigade as the "Tropic Lightning" division ends its Afghanistan duties and returns to its jungle-fighting roots.
"If I'm focusing the 25th Infantry Division now on Southeast Asia, and back to being the jungle fighters that they've always been, what's my relevance of Strykers?" Wiercinski said.

Amazing.

I called for it but never thought that it would even be considered.

The Army is getting back Light Infantry.

Good news out of the Big Army.  About time! 

Dual Formation

U.S. Marine Corps F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters and F-18 Hornets from Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. fly in formation off the coast of Northwest Florida May 15, 2013.

British response to terror attacks? Soldiers, don't wear your uniforms off base....

Read about the horrendous act and the pathetic response here.

Troops in London were advised in the immediate aftermath of yesterday’s attack not to wear their uniforms outside their bases

Thursday Delight.

S. Korean Suron Utility Helicopter.

J-10S. Know your enemy.

BVP-M2 SKCZ. Massively upgraded Czech BMP.

WTF IS GOING ON IN THE UK

via the Mail Online.

'We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you': What man holding bloody cleaver said after 'hacking soldier in Help For Heroes T-shirt to death just yards from Woolwich barracks'

Really?

And you wonder why everytime I see a young Muslim Male my hands slides towards my firearm.

I don't hate but I will be ready and if they come at me, these sorry, hateful, murderous bastards will get two in the face each and when they're all on the ground I'll empty whatever I have left into them.

Read about it here.

NOTE:  I will no longer debate whether or not "Islam" is a religion of peace.  I've seen enough.  Its not.  

FNSS PARS 6x6 for Indonesia?

I'm having trouble determining exactly WHAT vehicle Doosan is actually selling to Indonesia.

They have produced a 6x6 for a competition to equip the S. Korean Army and lost.  That vehicle was the Black Fox.

Then suddenly we hear about them selling a vehicle to Indonesia and although I originally posted an article saying that the vehicle (and award) was another win for FNSS or the Koreans had practically cloned the vehicle, I was told that the vehicle being offered was the Black Fox.

I went to the website this morning and what do I see?  The FNSS PARS 6x6 being listed as the vehicle that Doosan is selling.

Defense procurement is becoming murky, confusing and appears to be getting cut outs.

Of course this could all be the results of partnerships, financing, royalties, production rights etc...

I'm sure there is more to come.

26th MEU. Grunts and Tanks....

I wonder who the guy is in the ACU/ABU (can't quite tell) is and what he's doing on this road march.

Modest Proposal. Put a large caliber cannon on a MRAP!

Infantry Fire Support.

The enemy soon learned that their infantry weapons outranged our own and would engage us at max distance.  It pushed the rebirth of the Sniper in the countersniper role, Designated Marksman Concept and led to the development of new weapons like the US Army's Punisher Weapon System.

It did one other thing.  It got the military to rush tanks to Afghanistan.

But the problem remains.  How do you provide timely Direct Fires when the infrastructure and logistics don't support the widespread use of 60 plus ton vehicles?

You at least experiment with the idea of placing low recoil, large caliber cannons on MRAPs.

It might be a non-starter for several reasons but we have several big vehicles to choose from and one might be suitable. If the Cougar (in the pic above is too small) then the BUFFALO MRAP(pictured below) should be able to handle a low recoil gun in the 90 to 105mm range.

The US military is praying to all that's holy that the age of the IED is over.  I don't believe it is.  Troops in the Pacific are facing the IED threat in jungles from the Philippines to Malaysia.

Putting a cannon on an MRAP might not be so far fetched after all...especially if you're going to get fire support to troops when they need it.

Blast from the past. Bobcat--Canadian APC.

The Canadian Armor Forums have continuous threads about this vehicle, a book has recently been written about it but outside of the frozen North not too many people have heard of the Bobcat APC.

It was a unique design with a common layout and was amphibious. One wonders how it would have performed if it made it to production.

Phantom Badger. Boeing's entrant into the SOCOM Internally Carried Vehicle Contest.

via Land Warfare

Boeing has unveiled a new ground tactical vehicle designed to be internally transported in a V-22 Osprey tiltrotor to meet a US special forces’ requirement for highly mobile, V-22 Internally Transportable Vehicle (ITV).
Unveiled to reporters for the first time at Phantom Works near St Louis on 21 May, the new ‘Phantom Badger’ vehicle has been developed using the expertise of MSI Defense Solutions, which employed vehicle technologies originally developed for NASCAR racing.
Designed by the Special Pursuits Cell at Boeing Phantom Works, the Phantom Badger is Boeing’s proposal for a US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) request for proposal for a V-22 ITV, with a selection expected to be made by the end of the year.
Phantom Works programme manager for combat support vehicles, John Chicoli, said the vehicle addressed a gap for a vehicle that was able to be internally transported in a V-22 but which provided greater levels of protection and comfort than a smaller ATV.
‘There is a gap out there. This is a real tactical vehicle and doesn’t look like an ATV at all,’ Chicoli noted. ‘This features a high use of COTS and we have done a lot of work with special operation warfighters to look at what they require from a tactical vehicle.’
Boeing recently submitted its proposal for the SOCOM V-22 ITV requirement, which initially seeks two vehicles each with the ability to purchase eight additional units for testing.
The Phantom Badger has undergone testing at Fort Bragg and the Nevada Automotive Testing Center, with Chicoli claiming it features Humvee levels of mobility.
However, due to the nature of the requirement, and given that a number of companies are expected to respond to this latest RfP, Boeing was unwilling to disclose specific vehicle specifications such as speed, range, fuel capacity or weight.
The vehicle features four wheel steering, enhanced shocks and suspension developed by MSI, and mission-specific modules fitted behind the front two seats. These can be changed within 30 minutes, allowing special forces operators to quickly re-role the vehicle.
The vehicle can be loaded mission-ready onto a V-22 with 6 inches of space on each side.
While the prototype vehicle features a carbon fibre hood, Boeing has since decided this has been ‘over-engineered’ and has moved instead to fibre glass. Boeing claims Phantom Badger is relatively comfortable for a vehicle of this kind, allowing troops to stay fresh during the ride.

Meh. 

AAVs approaching an Australian LST. Watch and imagine the ride.

If you've ever wondered why the Amphibious Vehicle Test Branch can be so demanding take a look at the above vid.  Imagine the ride in back.  Consider a vehicle stuffed with 95th percentile Marines loaded down with full gear...

Now consider even rougher seas than you see here.  Its been done, might be occurring right now and its not pleasant.

The holy grail of our next vehicle have to be ergonomics, reasonable (that doesn't mean perfect) protection, sea keeping, ground mobility, the ability to provide fire support and GROWTH POTENTIAL (this is a very important yet poorly understood requirement)

The AAV was never expected to serve this long.  We have to plan having a vehicle with a comparable service life with the procurement of our next ride.