B.O.P.E. in action.

I can't explain why but I'm fascinated by this organization.  I hope a Brazilian reader can suggest a good book on the history of this unit.

The Storm High Speed Interceptor

The Storm High Speed InterceptorSKU: 12067276
The Storm is the culmination of thousands of hours of tactical experience, research, and training. The features of this high speed vessel present the perfect platform for interception and boarding in a hostile marine environment. The bow ramp, with access to the multi-purpose compartment below deck, and the full length protruding keel offer the premiere platform for beaching on rugged coastlines. Fully capable of being fitted with modern weapons systems, the Storm is the finest example of a twenty-first century combat boat.

Please contact us to learn more about Storm.

Terrier Combat Engineer Vehicle.

The British Army's Most Advanced Engineering Vehicle

Final Flight for Merlins

Navy awards contract for operational test CH-53K aircraft

Remember this story from early 2012?  via Flight Global.

The US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) is evaluating a proposal from Sikorsky to build four production-representative CH-53K Super Stallion heavy-lift helicopters, says the US Marine Corps' programme manager.
"We're looking at the proposal now," says Col Robert Pridgen.
NAVAIR received the proposal at the beginning of March, he says. A contract award is expected some time after this has been evaluated, although Pridgen says: "I don't want to nail down a date."
The four pre-production aircraft will be "fleet-representative" and be used for operational evaluations, as well to finish developmental testing.

Well this hit the airwaves a few days ago....via NAVAIR Press Release.

NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. – The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) awarded a $435 million cost-plus-incentive contract to Sikorsky to build four production-representative CH-53K heavy lift helicopters for the U.S. Marine Corps on May 30.
These four aircraft will be the System Demonstration Test Articles (SDTA) that the Marines will test during operational evaluation.
“The SDTA contract represents an exciting and significant milestone in our program,” said Col. Robert Pridgen, the Heavy Lift Helicopters program manager for NAVAIR. “We are well on our way to making the CH-53K a reality for our Marines and our naval fleet. The capability this aircraft brings, in every clime and place, is critical to sustaining the future missions of the Marine Air/Ground Task Force. The future of heavy lift is bright.”

Its hard to be enthused about this news when you realize that it was proposed over a year ago by Sikorsky in response to ANOTHER delay to the CH-53K program.

Its becoming a common rant on these blog pages but something is seriously wrong with Marine Corps procurement.

The simple is becoming hard and the hard impossible.  New leadership across the board is desperately needed. 

Modest proposal. Replace the legacy LCU with the LCM-1E.

The rumor mill (or at least I've gotten some e-mails indicating that its gonna happen) is swirling with the news that this year the Marine Corps is about to dedicate a couple of MV-22 squadrons to support MARSOC.

If true then MV-22s go back to being a premium asset and will probably become the sole domain of the Maritime Raid Force.  Fleet Marines will still need to get to shore so that puts boats at a premium..

The LCACs are awesome but they're loud, require extensive maintenance and are too few in number for us to put the rest of our eggs into.  That's why we should follow Australia's lead and procure the LCM-1E.  The same techniques that have been tested on the LCAC, like transporting AAVs from beyond the horizon and stopping short of the beach and letting them swim the last mile or two to shore should be doable.

The wiki article on the LCM-1E is here.

Blast from the past. XF-90.

Amos on the F-35 vs. Amos on the ACV.

"I personally met with top leadership within the F35 program, to include our industry partner, and communicated that I intend to personally track the progress of our airplane over the next two years. I will track every pound of weight growth, required engineering fixes, and every test point completed.....General James Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps.

The above quote is an indication of the seriousness that the Commandant placed on getting the F-35 in service.  Looks like it paid off because the airplane has an IOC date and the program appears unstoppable. (passage below is via DoD Buzz)

“Cost is a factor in this,” Amos said.“If things go according to current plans, a request for proposal should go out to industry early next year.”In 2011 the Marines cancelled its Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program due to increased cost for the capability. The EFV was designed to transit from an amphibious assault ship over a distance of 25 nautical miles. The over-the-horizon transit capability was considered essential to the Navy and the Marine Corps during the EFV development to protect from the threat of low-cost guided weapon systems.“I want [the ACV] to be like an F-150 [a large Ford pickup truck], reliable and beefy. …They are utility fighting vehicles for us,” Amos said.“I am only going to get one more shot to get this right.”

Amos again.  This time he's talking about the ACV and declaring that cost is a factor!  A battalion worth of ACVs could be bought with the money spent on two or three F-35s and cost is a factor?  (passage below is via Defense Tech)

“There are two answers to that, one is as Commandant of the Marine Corps’s answer which is Before I leave leave office four years from now … we’ll have a program of record, we’ll have steel, there will be a vehicle and I’ll be able to drive it,” Amos said responding to lawmakers questions during a House Armed Services Committee hearing. “I’m trying to pressurize industry, I’m trying to pressurize the acquisition folks, I want the word to get out. If we followed the standard acquisition timeline, which in some cases got us to where we are today, it’ll be 2024.”To avoid such a fate, the general said the Department of the Navy will be using a model similar to the one it used to quickly buy and field thousands of MRAPs during the height of the Iraq war.“Something probably that resembles the sense of urgency that we had for the MRAP but probably a little bit more scheduled, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Amos is gone next year.  Hopefully we'll get a grunt Commandant to sort the armor mess out. But it must be noted that the sense of urgency that was found for the F-35 is clearly lacking with a Marine Corps unique, mission specific, personnel carrier/infantry fighting vehicle for Marines.

Clearly something is broken in Marine land for this amount of vacillation to be going on without comment from members of the Infantry, and AAV community.  You lose one F-35 in combat and you lose a pilot and an airframe.  You lose an upgraded AAV to an enemy IED and you lose a squad.

Considering potential body counts which platform do you think deserves priority replacement? 

Defense Industry Daily said it best when they said this..." another episode of ballooning costs and delays will cripple the Marines for a generation"...I think we should consider the Marine Corps on crutches.

NOTE:  Amos said..... 

"I’m trying to pressurize industry, I’m trying to pressurize the acquisition folks, I want the word to get out. If we followed the standard acquisition timeline, which in some cases got us to where we are today, it’ll be 2024.”

Planned IOC for the ACV is now past 2020.

Read more here: http://blogs.star-telegram.com/sky_talk/2011/01/marine-commandant-pledges-personal-scrutiny-on-f-35.html#storylink=cpy

F-35

Terrific Tuesday.

Navy SEAL Transgendered.

Read about he, she, or whatever you call "it" here.

Just out of curiosity.  What is the military going to do when a servicemember starts taking hormones and changes sex but is in an all male military field.  Genetically the person is born male but chemically chooses to change.

Do they stay in the Infantry or Special Ops?  Do you arrange opposite sex facilities to support the new change?  

31st MEU’s “Boat” Company shows Japanese soldiers their craft

Sergeant Benjamin M. Miller (right), chief scout swimmer for Fox Company, Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, and a native of Los Angeles, draws out formations to designated scout swimmers with the 12th Infantry Regiment, 8th Division, Western Army, Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces, during familiarization training here, June 3. The Marines and Sailors of Company F., or “Boat” Company, integrated a platoon of Japanese soldiers as part of the Japanese Observer Exchange Program, where the soldiers take an observational role during the 31st MEU’s pre-deployment training. The 31st MEU and Japanese Self Defense Forces continually fortify their bond through shared training in order to enhance security and stability in the Asia Pacific region.

 

Colorado State Senate President successfully recalled. Gun rights victory coming soon.

via Ammoland.

Colorado Springs, CO --(Ammoland.com)- The Basic Freedom Defense Fund (BFDF – www.bfdf.org), the Colorado grassroots group heading the recall of State Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) has submitted 16,046 District 11 voter petition signatures to the Colorado Secretary of States’ office for the recall of John Morse.
This exceeds both the 7,178 signatures necessary for the recall and also exceeds the total number of votes (13,451) cast for Morse during his 2010 election.
The results of this historic recall effort were achieved despite the efforts of NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, Morse’s robo calls to voters, false attacks on signature collectors’ reputations and Morse’s political machine headed by Ed Hall, Chairman of the Denver Democrats and filing agent for Morse’s anti-recall group “A Whole Lot of People for John Morse.”

Hall is known for his Democrat Party biography referring to Colorado Springs as a “…right-wing, religious whack-job stronghold.”*
The submitted petition signatures and addresses will be verified by the Secretary of State.It is expected that Democrats will further challenge remaining signatures, possibly including court challenges to draw out the process. If the count still exceeds 7,178 after this, Morse will be given five working days from that time to decide whether or not to resign his office.
If Morse resigns within the five-day period, state Democrats can appoint a replacement from their ranks. If he does not resign, a date for the special election is set. In that event, it is possible that the Governor and Democrat Party may try to extend it to November so as to prepare a campaign to try to save Morse.
In a recent Colorado Springs interview Morse stated he will not resign and is “…in now until the bitter end.” Colorado Democrat Party Chairman Rick Palacio of Pueblo denied rumors that state democrats may ask Morse to step down so that they may replace him with appointee Michael Merrifield, though Palacio later stated in the same interview that Merrifield as a replacement “is a possibility.”
Such a move risks public backlash as it could be perceived as both ignoring the electorate’s wishes and taking an even harder stance against gun rights since Merrifield has served as a state director for Mayor Bloomberg’s gun-banning group “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” – positions that inspired the Morse recall effort.

“Regardless of the outcome and any posturing by Morse, he is going to be removed from his senate position one way or another due to his anti-constitutional beliefs and demonstrated actions.” –Anthony Garcia, BFDF spokesman — Anthony@basicfreedomdefensefund.org.

I'm thrilled.

This isn't a win yet.  Once he resigns or is voted out of office then victory can be declared.

Its a good first step though.

Maersk RO/RO container vessel was converted to a helo carrier and it looks right!

North Sea Boats X-18 FSV Fire Support Vessel

Thanks for the pic Dwi!

Note:  I can't find any information on this boat and I'm beginning to wonder if it is a fan created  "concept" or if its real.  A boat mounting a 90mm cannon would seem to be a weird way of doing business in my opinion especially when their are rapid firing 76mm cannons that would shoot faster, have a flatter trajectory and would be effective against air, land and sea targets.

AAV vs. Marine Personnel Carrier.

Plain talk.

1.  The AAV is too old to upgrade further.  Either you buy new hulls of the existing design with improvements or...

2.  You accept that a new design Amphibious Combat Vehicle is needed and you buy Marine Personnel Carriers as an interim vehicle until the ACV is ready.

Those are the only real choices left to the Marine Corps.  All a patch job will do is divert funds from more capable vehicles while maintaining an obsolete vehicle in service.  That's unacceptable.

Warrior Princess....A Transgender SEALs story & my thoughts.

"Our country won't go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. There won't be any America—because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race."

I've been chewing on the fact that we have another book by a Navy SEAL.  This time its about a SEAL who has/is undergoing hormone therapy and changing from male to female.

My thoughts....

1.  I don't know who is in charge of the SEALs or SOCOM (obviously McRaven isn't cause this keeps happening) but they need to get a handle on all these tell all books that are coming out.  Quiet professionals?  Not hardly.

2.  The SEAL culture needs to be carefully examined to understand why this seems so prevalent in their ranks. Once the cause is determined then efforts need to be made to get it under control.

3.  Its painfully obvious that everything masculine, traditional, martial etc...is under attack.  Everyone I know has certain closely held beliefs.  We don't seek to push our beliefs on others yet its obvious that the culture of the military is under sustained attack by "change agents" that are seeking to transform it into something more "gentle" and "less" rigid.  I don't see how you expect immediate obedience to orders when everything is painted in shades of grey.

4.  I personally see many guys in a quiet crouch.  The natives are restless but they're keeping low.  I don't know what the results of this will be but there will come a time when the pushback begins.

I don't think I've ever seen or read of a time when the military was under this much sustained pressure socially.  These experiments...these initiatives will result in a military that none of will recognize and one that I believe will be totally ineffective in combat.

If you take a serious look at the rebels fighting in Syria, you see violent, masculine, almost primal individuals (remember the rebel leader carving the heart out of Syrian Soldier?)  our "softened" up military will win a high tech war but once boots are on the ground we will get routed if we continue in the direction that we're headed.

APKWS

One of the all time great answers!

via Police News.

FLORIDA - An illegal alien, in Polk County , Florida , who got pulled over in a routine traffic stop, ended up "executing" the deputy who stopped him. The deputy was shot eight times, including once behind his right ear at close range. Another deputy was wounded and a police dog killed. A state-wide manhunt ensued.
The murderer was found hiding in a wooded area. As soon as he took a shot at the SWAT team, officers opened fire on him. They hit the guy 68 times.
Naturally, the liberal media went nuts and asked why they had to shoot the poor, undocumented immigrant 68 times.
Sheriff Grady Judd told the Orlando Sentinel: "Because that's all the ammunition we had." Now, is that just about the all-time greatest answer or what!
The Coroner also reported that the illegal alien died of natural causes. When asked by a reporter how that could be, since there were 68 bullet wounds in his body, he simply replied: (BEST QUOTE of 2009) . . . "When you are shot 68 times you are naturally gonna die."