Monday, June 24, 2013
Sunday, June 23, 2013
F-35 Ferry Flight...plus. Day one strike?
Above is the vid of the ferry flight of the F-35C to Florida.
The pilot of this airplane said something that caught me short and has me scratching my head..
He said the "plane will provide day one strike...a capability the Navy desperately needs..." It caught me short because there is a parallel development of the X-47 that is also to provide day one strike
Did the pilot misspeak or do we have two programs that are tailored to do the same job?
Marine Corps Medium Weight Forces will depend on the LPD-17 class and the next LSD.
Swinging through the internet this afternoon and its becoming more and more obvious that the America class LHD's just aren't designed for real deal Marine Corps amphibious operations.
Instead its optimized (in my opinion) to raids, SOCOM support and as a Sea Control Ship.
Why do I say that?
Simple. If you examine the specifications for that ship and then compare it to the ships that its going to replace, you see that the America class has a much smaller hospital. Much smaller well deck (when they get around to redesigning it). Much less vehicle storage...and much increased area for aviation.
Upon further reflection it becomes obvious that we're going to see MARSOC and or Navy SEALs on the big deck amphibs and the Battalion Landing Team relegated to the LPD and LSD of the formation.
What does this mean for operations? I'm not sure. You'll possibly see a new emphasis on raids (or rather a return to the raids model) and more ship boarding. Additionally you'll probably see the airwing reconfigured to meet the needs of the new reality.
That means more F-35's on the big deck than currently carried. You'll also probably see a few more AH-1Zs and almost no CH-53's..
On the LPD-17 class you'll probably see the number of CH-53's increase...along with it being the primary user of UH-1Ys. In a post I did
But if I am correct then the question must be asked. Why go through the trouble of adding a well deck to a ship that will rarely act as a traditional amphib? I contend that it won't. The talk of "redoing" the America class to fix that discrepancy was simply a shell game. I don't believe that they will actual go through with the mods. I believe that what you see is what you get and that the next move is to get the job done of redesigning/reshuffling the MEU among the Amphibious Ready Group ships to show the new thinking.
Textron IS offering a fire support vehicle.
The good. Textron recently had its family day near New Orleans and rolled out some of its products to help commemorate the event. In the lineup we see a fire support version of its Commando Family of Vehicles.
The bad. I wrote the company about this version, and the response was that they had no info that they could provide.
The ugly. What is it with the secrecy surrounding the armored vehicle market? I don't get it.
This shit will spiral out of control.....
via Harris Tactical from RedFlagNews...
A large fleet named “Mol Comfort” carrying Arms for FSA from the U.S. has crashed in the Indian Ocean as it made its way from Singapore to Jeddah, on board were 4,500 containers loaded with arms for the Syrian rebels’This is getting good in a very bad way.
‘MOL Comfort sank due to yet unclear reasons, sailing from Singapore to Jeddah and after that to North Europe, leaving behind hundreds of drifting containers and a huge aftershock hitting liner sector and all of the maritime industry.
Even the scale of the consequences is hard, impossible, to estimate, not to mention consequences themselves. This is the 1st case in liner sector, when modern ocean-going liner container vessel (built in Japan!) sank in the ocean after breaking in 2 parts, like a poorly built and managed bulk carrier or over aged coaster. Nothing like this ever occurred, and no one believed it was possible, even theoretically. It just could not happen, but still, here it is.’
H/T Before It's News... and Vessel Finder....
Time to saddle up, clean the gear and all that other jazz.
MARSOC and Navy SEALs want a maritime role? Time to go boys.
22lr Lethality. Time to rethink conventional wisdom.
Hmmm.
I'm going to chew on this a bit. The 22lr might have more applications than I thought if this vid is to be believed.
Brazil's Guarani factory opening vid.
Congrats to Brazil and Iveco on this.
I keep looking at what they've done and can't help but wonder what the Marine Corps could do if they held Lockheed Martin or BAE 's feet to the fire and told them which vehicle we picked and that they have 12 months to get it into production. Fail and its on to the next guy.
Brazil did it, why can't we?
This business will get out of control.
Maybe I'm just an alarmist sob, but I'm watching events in the Middle East..rioting in Turkey and Brazil...and when I tie all the events together it makes me think that events are quickly spiraling. They're spiraling and I don't see any activity from those in charge to attempt to control or limit their impact. The latest from the Middle East. This time Lebanon. via Alarabiya.
Two Lebanese army officers and a soldier were killed on Sunday in a clash with supporters of a radical Sunni Muslim sheikh opposed to the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah, an army statement said.Yeah.
“An armed group loyal to Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir attacked, for no reason, a Lebanese army checkpoint in the village of Abra” on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, the military said.
“Two officers and a soldier were killed, while several others were wounded. Several military vehicles were damaged,” the statement added, updating the army's earlier toll of two dead.
The clash broke out when Assir’s supporters surrounded an army checkpoint in Abra, where a vehicle transporting other supporters of the Sunni cleric had been stopped, a security source told AFP earlier.
“After the armed men attacked (the army) with gunfire” the army fired back, the source added.
An AFP journalist reported that explosions were heard two kilometers (more than a mile) away.
The correspondent saw civilians fleeing the fighting, both by car and on foot.
Businesses in Abra closed for the day because of the raging gunfire.
“The shells are raining down on us, and there is intense gunfire,” a witness told AFP by telephone.
More troops deployed to the area as the clashes raged through the afternoon.
The controversial Sunni sheikh called on his supporters last week to fire on apartments in Abra that he says house Hezbollah members.
Abra is home to a mosque where Assir leads the main weekly prayers on Fridays. The sheikh believes Hezbollah uses the Abra apartments to keep him under surveillance.
His supporters clashed with Hezbollah in Abra last week in fighting that left one man dead.
Assir was unknown until around two years ago, when he rose to prominence over his radical opposition to Hezbollah and its ally, the Damascus regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria-related tensions have soared in Lebanon, deepening sectarian rifts between Sunnis and Shiites.
Shiite Hezbollah supports Assad's regime, while the Sunni-dominated opposition backs the rebels fighting it.
During Sunday’s fighting, Assir distributed a video message via mobile phone addressed to his supporters.
“We are being attacked by the Lebanese army,” Assir said, describing the military as “sectarian” and accusing it of supporting Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
“I call on everyone... to cut off roads and to all honorable soldiers, Sunni and non-Sunni, to quit the army immediately,” Assir said in the message.
He urged supporters across Lebanon to flock to Abra “to help defend our religion, our honor and our women.”
I'm alarmist.
But this shit looks like its spiraling. This Sunni vs. Shia mess will turn regional with huge doses of civil wars scattered throughout. If this erupts then you're going to see the entire Western World dragged into with Russia and China participating just to support their interests.
World wars have started over less.
Pic of the day. USS Boxer LHD 4.
 |
| New talk of further modifications to the America class...besides adding a well deck that is below specs is to reduce the size of the Island so that additional spaces can be added to the flight deck. Is this an evolution toward making LHDs more capable or toward more of a carrier role? |
B.O.P.E. video...
Great vid...I hope to God these guys aren't caught up in the fight against rioters in Brazil. That would taint their good name.
Fixing SOCOM.
 |
| A Marine with Special Operations Training Group conducts helicopter rope suspension training from an MV-22B Osprey with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 June 13 at Landing Zone Vulture aboard Camp Lejeune. |
Its emphasizing Force Recon in the form of Maritime Raid Force (which uses the Battalion Landing Team as basic fire watch) yet at the same time pushing its conventional Infantry Units to attain skill sets which normally reside in the Special Ops Community.
Which begs the question.
What makes Special Ops, Special Ops? Is it training? The average grunt in a good unit...Marines, 82nd, 10th Mountain, 25th ID for example all get variations on the same skill set that you find in Navy SEALs and Rangers....
Is it how they get to work??? Besides the more exotic forms of insertion (and I'm mainly talking HAHO, HALO and SCUBA) they basically get to work the same way...either Helo, by boat or by some type of armored vehicle....
So what makes Special Ops, Special Ops?
Is it unit size?
Uh, forgive me but quite honestly, you're seeing the Rangers fight mainly as Company sized elements. We've seen the smaller 3 or 4 man teams get mauled in Afghanistan and they were a non-starter in Iraq due to the urbanization that was found.
So if you're talking Company and Battalion sized fighting units (Brigades in the Army) then what makes the elite units elite?
Yeah.
That's the rub.
Rumsfeld had a love affair with SOCOM but failed to follow through with his famous metrics. He went off his experience in Vietnam and suddenly every mission was a Special Ops mission.
He ignored history.
History tells us that the individual soldier is getting more effective and more lethal. The higher the education requirements the more responsibility that can be passed to the conventional units. And finally our current JCS and most especially our own Commandant is failing to acknowledge the work done by conventional units. SOCOM focused entirely on raids and dropped a whole series of missions. Those missions were picked up by conventionals and now we're seeing them rush back to reclaim them.
Quite honestly the opposite should occur. SOCOM should be downsized to make it truly elite again. We should also carefully tailor their mission sets. If a conventional unit can do the job then its not a SOCOM mission. SPECIAL OPERATIONS SHOULD BE SPECIAL!!
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Your Saturday "what the fuck" moment courtesy of Gawker & a huge wolf....
Tim Bartlett, a mechanic from Alberta, Canada, was enjoying a long motorcycle ride down British Columbia's scenic Highway 93 when he spotted something unusual emerging from the woods: a massive wolf. And the wolf didn't just stand there – it chased Bartlett for nearly a mile, at times coming within ten feet of the mechanic.Full story here...but it is Gawker so make sure you read the comments.
“It was coming at me. It probably got to within a couple meters, easy, maybe a meter,” Bartletttold the National Post.
How much lift will the AAV have once its made IED "Capable"? Will we need more than projected?
But that's with Vietnam era bench seats. Since this vehicle is about to be extended in service even longer, I wonder what the new number will be.
If you consider everything Qinetiq North America listed in their brochure, I would guess it would drop to around 10 to 12. Consider the fact that it appears that Blast Seating, Spall Liners, Bouyancy Aids and even extra armor is all part of this upgrade (and we still haven't seen anything regarding the vehicles suspension) and it makes me wonder if the number of vehicles in the AAV Battalion isn't going to have to be plussed up in order to get the same number of Marines transported.
According to the program office they're looking at upgrading 493 AAVs. Something tells me that's using "legacy" AAV lift as a guide.
After the upgrade that won't be applicable.
If I'm right about this then the Marine Corps really does need to pay me a consulting fee. Someone needs to be working on getting our armor in shape!
We've talked about it long enough. Time to camo our weapons.
 |
| U.S. Marines assigned to Company L, Battalion Landing Team 3/2, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), provide suppressive fire during a platoon attack exercise during Exercise Eager Lion 2013, in Al Quweira, Jordan, June 17, 2013. Exercise Eager Lion 2013 is an annual, multinational exercise designed to strengthen military-to-military relationships and enhance security and stability in the region by responding to modern-day security scenarios. The 26th MEU is a Marine Air-Ground Task Force forward-deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility aboard the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group serving as a sea-based, expeditionary crisis response force capable of conducting amphibious operations across the full range of military operations. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Juanenrique Owings, 26th MEU Combat Camera/Released) |
Besides seeing that 26th MEU Battalion Landing Team is doing its job and finally getting to do some work (I swear to God, they must give every MEU Commander a briefing that it will be all Maritime Raid Force all the time), I was left wondering when will we finally fix that.
I'm talking about Marines being in some pretty effective camoflauge but still carrying around Black Rifles.
I mean geez, even civilians have gotten the message about black standing out in almost every environment, yet we still have Black Rifles being issued to our Marines.
I have no idea about the cost of getting all of these weapons duracoated or cerakoated but its way past time that we did something.
If you're attempting to conceal yourself and your weapon stands out it can get you killed. Maybe we should have focused on that improvement instead of going with a Serpa Holster or a new sling.
This is why I count Kyle Defoor as one of the top 8 "warrior trainers" in the US.
via Soldier System...
Gunfighter Moment – Kyle DefoorYeah. That's why I like Defoor...Haley is big on it too...I'm talking about being the complete warrior.Workout Ratios-Strength to Cardio (3:1)
When it comes to PT nowadays, we pretty much got it licked. Between CrossFit and the host of other programs out there our mil, LE, and civs are in great shape strength wise.
It’s a bit funny to see it becoming a phenomenon when some of it is basically a military type PT session thats been going on for half a century. Still great and at least people are doing something useful and beneficial and at the same time enjoying themselves.
However, one part that is being left out in some places is cardio. Real cardio. Simply not enough running, biking, swimming, whatever. I see it in some mil places where run times have dropped dramatically. It’s been addressed in other spots and now a lot of mil units are starting to see run times being crushed. A lot of us are attributing this to the perfect complement of real world strength training combined with cardio, plus “active” rest days.
A good guide to complement whatever PT you do is cardio 3 times a week, 20 mins at a heart rate of roughly 165 bpm. That’s pretty much universal for someone who isn’t obese.
A better complement to your strength training is 4 times a week at 30 minutes a pop, 2 sessions at around 165 bpm, and 2 sessions at 185-195 bpm.
In the end, you’ll have to base your cardio on how much time is spent on strength stuff, but the above is a starter guide.
Runners with experience can break this down to easy pace for long distance and tempo pace which is approx 1.5-2 min slower than race pace.
Somewhere around a 3:1 is perfect I think for strength vs. cardio for the masses. A 2:1 should be considered for mil units who move on foot over rough terrain or recce elements.
V/R,
Kyle Defoor
“Trainer of Feeders”
If you were in the military then you get it but some civilians don't...and I include LEO's in that too.
Its not good enough to have all the gucci gear...to have the latest and greatest firearm with knife and optics...you've got to have the engine (your body) to put all that stuff into motion and the brain to make it work.
That's why Defoor emphasizes.
Total warrior training.
Mind, Body, Brain and Spirit. Good stuff. A variation on this is what we called distance sprints. Nothing earth shattering. On strength days you run 400 meters with breaks in between for PFT distance (6 x 400 twice a week...trust me...you'll have to build up and still its a kick in the ass) and then run days would be long and slow. Damn near everyone was zooming with a first class PFT and they were legit scores...no pencil whipping allowed.
PhotoRecon! A must see website.
If you aren't linked in with PhotoRecon then you're missing out. They have it together...a well laid out website...articles that don't stretch from here to eternity...in other words if you're a busy on the go person that needs to pop in , grab what interests you and then be on your way then they're your go to aviation site. Check them out!
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