Ok Buddy...you've spent too much time in the field...

This son of bitch even looks crazy!

Optionally manned Gripen E/F???!!!!

Ok.

It takes a bit of news to have me saying "holy bat shit" but this did it.  An optionally manned Gripen E/F?  It makes perfect sense.  We've been doing it for years with our F-4 and now F-16 target drones but to do it to an operational airplane?  Its nothing if not gutsy mixed with a huge dose of thinking outside the box.

via Bloomberg.

Saab AB (SAABB) is working on a version of its Gripen fighter that could fly without pilots as the company explores ways to keep the program viable for another 30 years.
“What we are talking about is an optionally manned aircraft,” Chief Executive Officer Hakan Buskhe said in an interview at the Paris Air Show. The concept would follow development of the Gripen E, an upgraded model of the jet Saab is developing for the Swedish and Swiss air forces, he said.
The emergence of increasingly sophisticated air defenses is driving military planners around the world to explore greater use of unmanned planes to mitigate risk to personnel. The U.S. is boosting spending to develop unmanned combat aircraft, with France and the U.K. cooperating on an attack drone project and China showing a prototype.
“Just because you need an unmanned fighter does not mean it is affordable to build a new platform,” Bushke said. “If you like for a mission you can put a pilot into the aircraft and if you need to use it for high risk you fly without a pilot.”
Evolving the Gripen E to feature such a capability “is not a big step,” Bushke said, without saying when such a version may fly.

Just wow. 

Boston Bomber classified a gun victim?

Mayors against illegal guns has jumped the shark.  Worse for Democrats, the President has officially reached lame duck status.  Immigration reform very well might be his last accomplishment.  Nothing else will be done and from the looks of the mess that Obama Care is in, he'll be on defense for the rest of his term.

Why does Snowden scare the Congress and Journalist so much?

Gregory asking why another journalist would aide and abet a whistleblower tells me almost all I need to know.

Watching the Congress, both Democrat and Republican, agree that Snowden should be prosecuted tell me the rest of the story.

Snowden scares the shit out of these people.

We've heard alot but they want him in custody bad.  Read bad.  I think the real bombshells are still waiting to go off and the Obama administration jumping through hoops to try and get him from Hong Kong and then throwing a hissy fit when they fail is beyond telling.  Its chilling.

When the rest of this story is put out I think the American people will be ready to throw out some politicians.

Kick off your Monday right.

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

recently (read it here) I asked the question of where the CH-53's were.  I think this theory pretty much explains it.

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’
‘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....

This is getting good in a very bad way.

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.
“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.”

Yeah.

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.

Navy gets its first F-35...

12 nations buying the F-35? War Machines Graphic.

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.

The Marine Corps is hanging at a ragged edge right now.

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!!

Your Saturday "what the fuck" moment courtesy of Gawker & a huge wolf....

via Gawker....

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.
“It was coming at me. It probably got to within a couple meters, easy, maybe a meter,” Bartletttold the National Post.

Full story here...but it is Gawker so make sure you read the comments.

How much lift will the AAV have once its made IED "Capable"? Will we need more than projected?

Around 17 Marines in practice, but 25 in literature is the lift capability of the current AAV.

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)

I was doing my swing around the internet this morning and came across this pic.

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.