F-35. Did the Navy just tell us there are problems with the C?

Thanks for the article Andrew!

via Reuters.

(Reuters) - The U.S. Navy remains committed to the Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, but is also looking at options to buy additional Boeing Co (BA.N) F/A-18 fighter jets, a senior U.S. Navy official said on Tuesday.
Richard Gilpin, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for air programs, told Reuters that current plans still called for purchases of the Boeing F/A-18 and EA-18G electronic attack planes to end in fiscal 2014.
He said the U.S. military would have to act soon to ensure continued production of the F/A-18 beyond 2016, but said no decisions had been made at this point.
He denied that those discussions signaled any wavering of the Navy's commitment to the F-35 program. "Let me be clear. The Navy is very committed to moving to JSF. I wouldn't want you to get the impression that the Navy is not committed to JSF, because we are," Gilpin said.
He said a possible budget-driven pause in procurement of the Navy's F-35 C-model would not derail the program, although it could potentially increase the cost of each airplane.

This is one of two things...

1.  There are problems with the C model and the Navy is planning on increasing the number of F-18's because the delay will cause the price to go up....or....
2.  The C is coming in at a price that is unpalatable so they will accept a decreased number and increased price and make up with it by buying more F-18s.

Either way, its becoming increasingly obvious that the DEATH SPIRAL is here.   More ominously for F-35 zealots is the fact that the naval services are going to be buying what are essentially unique planes that will not generate the cost/maintenance/training savings that have been forecasted.  Quite honestly the possibility of an outright cancellation of the C model remains.

Modest proposal. The JHSV can get the Stryker Brigade in the Pacific fight.

First read The Bayou Renaissance Man Blog's take on the JHSV here.

Then consider this....allocating a squadron to the 25th ID.  They could deploy in 72 hours to most parts of the Pacific and arrive in with full gear.  No light infantry overmatch concerns, they're bringing armored vehicles, artillery etc.

If it can't change Marine Corps ops, it would certainly revolutionize the Army.

MC-27J Gunship. The Italian AF buys a few...

Read about it here.

I don't think this is still a viable concept.  Time will tell though.

Bell Aerospace X-22 via The Unwanted Blog.

Unwanted Blog link...

Will risk combat for women but not pullups?

via Marine Times....

“Data collected does indicate some potential risks with executing a complete transition at this time to a [pullup]-only PFT for female Marines,” he said. “... Further assessment is expected to last into [calendar year 2014]. However, a final timetable has not been established.”

Read it all here.

Understand something boys and girls.  This is how warfighting organizations die.  The enemy soldier won't give a flying fuck.  So your squad is slowed down by a weak member?  Good.  It makes it easier to hunt you down and kill you.  Especially if someone is pushing distributed operations in a strict rule of engagement environment (which means supporting fires will by necessity be less effective).

I can no longer recommend the Marine Corps as a career option for young men. 

MV-22 lands on USS George Washington.

PHILIPPINE SEA - Two U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 262 and one from VMM 265 landed for the first time on the flight deck of the U.S. Navy's forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73), Nov. 17.
The unique aircraft capable of vertical short takeoff and landing (VSTOL), similar to that of the Marine AV-8B Harrier jump jet, landed on the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier to refuel to continue the delivery of relief supplies and transport of personnel in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda.

RANT TIME!

This is beyond unseemly now.  They're pimping the MV-22 like a cheap whore.  Personally even if I loved every ounce of the airplane I'd be concerned.  I don't so I'm pissed.  They're trying so hard to stir up overseas orders and to push the Navy to buying it for the Carrier Onboard Delivery requirement that they don't see the ass that they're making of the Corps.

Check out the Israeli Defense Force Flickr page. 

What do you see?  You see IDF pumping up its people, helping the people of the Philippines in their hour of need.  Check out the USMC Flickr site and you see the MV-22.  You listen to Marine Corps spokesmen or senior officers and they talk about the MV-22.

Its sickening.  Its pathetic.  Its desperate and it fucking needs to stop..showcase how Marines are helping the Filipino people and once that is done then you circle back to your favorite toy.  Right now they have it ass backwards.

INS Vikramaditya was spied upon by NATO aircraft and ships

Thanks for the article Samar!

via India Today.

INS Vikramaditya, India's largest aircraft carrier, is safely in the Indian Navy's hands now, and will begin its journey home shortly. But just a year ago, there was an incident that created a major stir on board the massive ship as it was put through trials at sea off the Russian coast.
INS Vikramaditya was spied upon by NATO forces.
Headlines Today Deputy Editor Shiv Aroor, the first Indian journalist on board the aircraft carrier, has accessed exclusive images of that disturbing incident that was even taken up at the diplomatic level.
The images show a NATO maritime spy aircraft repeatedly buzzing.
Over INS Vikramaditya in an attempt to snoop on her communications and combat signatures. Never before revealed, these images captured from the deck of the ship show how the US-built P-3C Orion "buzzed" the ship just a few hundred feet over her deck and circled her in an attempt to harvest classified electronic and acoustic data about the vessel.
The snooping operation created such a stir that the Russian team on board the Vikramaditya summoned a Russian Navy MiG-29K from a shore base to chase away the intruding aircraft.
The spy aircraft beat a hasty retreat once the MiG-29K arrived on the scene.

I find this interesting on a couple of levels.

First, its incredibly sloppy.  The trials of the ship were announced and a sub could have gotten any data necessary.

Second, this will not help NATO and by extension the US when it comes to India relations.  Friends might spy on each other without issue inside NATO but our other allies take a dim view of this sort of thing.  The Indian people will not be happy with this.

And finally what is happening inside our intelligence agencies...both civilian and military.  The lack of professionalism (as in getting the job done without fanfare or discovery) is nowhere to be seen.  I don't know what the problem is but we're seeing the disintegration of our nations most important institutions (those designed to defend the nation) right before our eyes.

EuroFighter Typhoon launches a new, interactive website...

Check it out here.

USAF budgetary madness.

Thanks for the article Conrad...

via Defense News.

WASHINGTON — If sequester remains in effect, the US Air Force’s combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) mission is in danger of disappearing, according to multiple defense sources.
Funds for new CSAR helicopters are not included in the service’s fiscal 2015 budget proposal that includes sequestration spending cuts, the defense sources said. Moreover, funds to extend the lives of about 90 battle-worn Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters is not part of the sequester budget.
Each US military service is developing at least two budgets for 2015, one that includes sequestration spending cuts and another that builds on the Pentagon’s fiscal 2014 budget proposal, which is $52 billion above the federal spending cap.
Funding for the Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) program, which would purchase more than 100 helicopters for the CSAR mission, fell below the cutting line as the service struggles to find savings under a sequestered budget.
About two-thirds of the Pave Hawk fleet is flown and crewed by active-duty airmen, while the rest come from the Guard and reserve.
For months, the Air Force has been poised to award the contract to a Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin team — the only publicly announced bidders — but has held back the contract due to the budget uncertainty.

Read the entire article but we're seeing budgetary madness going on here.

How can an organization as big as the Pentagon not be able to perform an in depth audit but is capable of giving lawmakers two different budgets?

Additionally how can the MV-22 receive full funding---with long lead contracts to boot, and yet this USAF mission critical, low density asset wither away? 

Something is foul in Denmark.  Is this another one of those ploys to get additional funding while protecting the F-35?  Is the Pentagon attempting to blackmail Congress by saying "we must have the F-35" but the helicopter to rescue downed aviators is less important?

My respect for leadership in all the services continues to plummet.  Where I once only saw incompetence, I now see the most vile behavior imaginable.  The Pentagon needs an enema.

Is this dude wearing a bra???

Predator Intelligence first picked up on this and I have to say that it really looks like it.  Is this a "thing" in the Middle East now?

Dubai's ruler, Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum (L), attended the air show where the deal was announced [AFP]

Is command confusion ruining the Marine Corps response to the Philippine Typhoon?

SLD has a story out that talks about the Marine Corps response to the typhoon in the Philippines.  Read it here but this one line stands out....

III MEF is the key initial US force dealing with the relief effort and has functioned as the tip of the spear for the joint force.

So.  Let me get this straight.  The Marine Corps has deployed the 31st MEU, which is providing the bulk of the manpower to deal with the disaster...has the 3rd MEB up and running to provide command and control (even though the 31st is fully capable of handling that task) and now the CO of the 3rd MEF shows up to look things over.

On the Marine side alone you have a 3 star (MEF), 1 star (MEB) all looking over the shoulder of some poor Colonel trying to get the job done.

This is not the streamlined, efficient and cost effective organization that I know.

This is an abomination.

I will beat on this "MEB" concept till they change it because its obvious to all that its fucked up from Amos down.

F-18 production end looms....

"But it's such a solid airframe. The capabilities are understated, and I think the capabilities of our competition are hugely overstated."

via Reuters...

Boeing is scrambling to drum up additional orders for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and the EA-18G Growler electronic attack plane before its production line is slated to end in 2016.
Ricardo Traven, a former Canadian Air Force pilot who has worked on the Super Hornet program since 1997, said he is convinced that the plane's capabilities will attract additional orders to keep the line running.
"These are the dark days right now," Traven told Reuters in a pre-flight briefing before a 40-minute flight at altitudes of up to 18,000 feet. "But it's such a solid airframe. The capabilities are understated, and I think the capabilities of our competition are hugely overstated."
Traven said Boeing had updated the technology on the F/A-18E/F fighter over the past decade, which meant it was more advanced and even stealthier - or able to evade enemy radar - than critics generally understood.
High above the Dubai Airshow, Traven demonstrated 7G turns - delivering seven times the force of gravity on the pilot and reporter in the backseat - and the jet's ability to continue delivering missiles or bombs even at high angles of attack that he said would stall out the Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 fighter or the Eurofighter Typhoon built by a European consortium.
To demonstrate the capability of even the relatively old radar installed on the jet used for the demonstration, Traven pinged a car on a desert highway and identified the unwitting driver's exact speed - 59 miles per hour.

Ok.

This helps explain at least part of the Navy solicitation for 36 of these jets.

They're trying to protect the production line from shutdown.  It'll happen too.  If Lockheed Martin can play the jobs card then so can every other defense manufacturer...including Boeing.  Additionally with Lockheed laying off 4000 employees to keep the stock up (not to lower the price of the F-35), I fully expect BAE and others to jump on the jobs bandwagon to get stuck projects moving again.  One more Sealy, Texas type situation and the Army will be fighting to get a new vehicle with Congressional support this time.

But back to the F-18.

Are we really going to hand a corporation a monopoly on our defense production?

Its too insane to even consider, but here we are. 

Delta Force Marine wins Navy Cross.

via Washington Times.

In a unique battlefield commendation, a Marine Corps member of Delta Force has been awarded the nation’s second highest military honor for coming to the defense of Americans last year at a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya.
Delta Force, a counterterrorism unit in the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), has been thought of as a strictly Army outfit. But it does take on qualified “operators,” as they are called, from other services.

Read it all here.

Curious though.  Delta is even better at keeping quiet than Special Forces.  SEALs might talk to the press like they're publicist but that's not the SF way.

So why would they put this information out?

There is an agenda going on because I'm sure there are higher profile missions that deserve publicity but aren't getting it.  So why this?  And why now?

Predator UAV crashes into US Warship????

Ok.  This sounds .... weird.  Story from Russia Times...

An American drone has malfunctioned and crashed into a guided missile cruiser off the coast of Southern California, causing two injuries, say officials. The incident happened while the vessel was testing a combat weapons system.
Lt. Lenaya Rotklein of the US Third Fleet told AP the two sailors injured in the crash were being treated for minor burns. The remotely-controlled craft reportedly veered out of control during an operation to test the USS Chancellorsville’s combat weapons system on Saturday afternoon. Rotklein said the drone was being used to test the ship's radar.

The guided missile carrier is now heading back to the San Diego Naval Base, where officials will assess the extent of the damage. In response to the accident, the Navy says it is opening an investigation to examine the possible causes.

This is the second drone crash to occur this week in the US after an unmanned craft malfunctioned andcame down over Lake Ontario on Tuesday, prompting the suspension of all drone flights in the Central New York area.

The military was unable to say why the $4 million Reaper drone lost control and crashed, but reported there was no damage to civilian property or injuries.

Anti-drones activists have slammed the US government’s use of the unmanned craft on American soil, citing the increasing number of accidents.
“One of the notorious things about drones and Reapers is their high accident rate,” Ed Kinane a Syracuse-based peace activist told syracuse.com on Tuesday. “A general concern is that because the military is so in love with drones and the Reaper, it appears they have rushed these things into production.”
Bloomberg calculated in a 2012 survey that on average there were 9.31 accidents for every 100,000 hours of drone flight.
Nevertheless the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has resolved to push ahead with a plan to expand the use of drones in American airspace by 2015.

Ok. This seals the deal. Australia is the most fucked up place on the planet.

Photos via The Daily Caller.

Look at the pics below.  At first I thought hmm....a light snow fell?  Maybe frost?  Ok, how about some kind of crop disease?  Then I read the story and the absolute horror hit.

Those ARE FREAKING SPIDER WEBS.  FIELDS COVERED WITH FUCKING SPIDERWEBS!!!

Ah hell no.

Australia is the most fucked up place on this planet.  Snakes?  I can deal with snakes.  Alligators?  I like mine with boudin balls and Coors light.  But Australia has insects that will EAT BIRDS, fuck you up in general and now I find out they cover entire fields in spiderwebs.  Oh and did I leave out the fact that half the animals are actively trying to kill you?

Polaris finally does it. They introduce an air-less tire on a production ATV.

Go to the site here to see a couple of vids and more pics.  I can't wait till they do it for trucks!

MV-22 transported, rapid response force exposed for the fraud it is....

via Defense.gov...

CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii, Nov. 15, 2013 – Elements of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, based on the Japanese island of Okinawa, are preparing to deploy to the typhoon-ravaged Philippines in support of Operation Damayan.

About 900 31st MEU Marines will board two Navy amphibious ships, the USS Germantown and USS Ashland, which are en route to Okinawa from their homeport of Sasebo, Japan and are expected to arrive in the Philippines next week. An additional 100 31st MEU Marines will fly to the region.

The ships are expected to bring heavy engineering equipment such as backhoes, dump trucks and wreckers; amphibious assault vehicles; generators; and portable water tanks.

As many as eight MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 assigned to the 31st MEU are expected to fly from Okinawa to Clark International Airport in the Philippines in the coming days, doubling the number of Osprey aircraft available to fly missions.

The 31st MEU Marines will assist with road clearance and with distribution of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief supplies as needed. They’ll also aid relief efforts ashore throughout the emergency phase of operations.

HQMC has worked overtime to emphasize a piece of equipment during this relief operation.

The MV-22.

That my friends is something new and not in keeping with Marine Corps tradition.  The Marines have always emphasized the person, not the tech as being the force behind why the Marine Corps succeeds where others failed.

Looks like we have a bunch of tech monkeys in charge right now....and they're getting their asses handed to them.

We have a Brigadier General on the ground in the Philippines and all he talks about is the MV-22.  But for relief to get to those who need it, he's going to need the services of some strong, able bodied men to operate equipment.  More men to remove debris and to transport supplies.  Still more to drive AAVs into inaccessible areas to help those that might have been forgotten.

The star of this relief effort is the Marine.   NOT SOME FUCKING AIRPLANE!

We need new leadership and from the statements I've seen in the news, that extends all the way down to the one star level. 

United Nations giving the US Marine Corps instructions????

Thanks Mark for the link...

SIDENOTE:  Chaos 56 left this comment...

In III MEF, requested to go, got told to pound sand.... gotta love Division. HA/DR should not be a Marine Corps show, we should be facilitating NGO/IGOs, State Dept, and UN aid to the area, the DoS has the lead in these things and we should be doing everything possible to put of GoP face on it rather than an American one. Especially when that country has an ongoing insurgency in the south. We should be making the GoP successful rather than them supporting us. But alas I'm going back to my cave to color in the lines.

Not only should we be propping up the Philippine Govt, but the UN order goes against our own interests in the region.  We want to get back onto Subic Bay.  We want the insurgency put down in the south.  The UN could care less.  The more this story churns the worse it gets.  The saddest part?  There are people hurting that are getting swept up in politics, the desire to prove a concept or plain old power grabbing....its a shame.

via the International Business Times.

The U.S. Marines were reportedly instructed not to let Philippine government officials and politicians touch the relief goods that will arrive in Samar. Five C130 panes are scheduled to arrive, carrying relief goods from the United Nations.
Six days after one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded hit the cities and towns in central region of the Philippines, survivors became increasingly frustrated with the government's slow response to distribute badly needed food and water

A few things....

1.  Read it for yourself.  The whole thing.
2.  The USMC better get ahead of this story like TODAY!
3.  As usual, the UN is causing additional friction in a relief effort (if this is true) and it helps explain why supplies are slow to reach survivors.
4.  Instead of setting up a MEB to deal with this type of situation, the Marine Corps would have been better served to insert a couple of logistics officers into USAID to get them up to speed on how to plan, organize and carry out operations of this type.  Once USAID is up to speed (something I doubt they've ever been before) then the officers remain to act as liaisons in case of future incidents.
5.  The USMC better get ahead of this story like TODAY!

SIDENOTE:  Corruption is known to exist in the Philippine govt.  Ours too.  It also exists in Haiti but for some reason the relief effort proceeded at a quicker pace for one reason.  The military took the lead, ended up pushing an ineffective USAID out of the way and simply got the job done.  There is no reason why a one star general (MEB Commander) would allow a bottleneck to form at an airport.  This concept has failed and its obvious that early arrival does not ensure early success.  Without the full power of a MEU to conduct operations this is just a dog and pony show.  Additionally the UN has proven time and time again to be a hinderance and not a help in almost every arena.  They are simply an administrative organization without the ability to lead or direct operations in the field.

F-35C Webinar? The bastards are nervous!

Thanks for the article Contrarian! 

via LM Press Release.

Over the past year, the team behind the F-35C carrier variant has made progress delivering the first jets to the U.S. Navy, standing up the first training squadron and accomplishing test points.
Join us as an F-35 expert and an F-35 test pilot discuss the largest F-35 variant, the capability it will bring to strengthen the carrier strike group and upcoming milestones. We'll take a deeper look into what the future holds for this 5th Generation fighter, including:
• CV ship trials
• Deliveries to the first Naval Air Station
• Preparation for the Navy's Initial Operating Capability
Featuring:
Bill Gigliotti, F-35 Test Pilot
Steve Callaghan, Director F-35 and Naval Aviation Programs
Have a question about the F-35C? Our F-35 experts will also be answering live audience questions during the event.

Uh Wow.

These bastards are getting nervous.  They talk up progress but ignore the elephant in the room...the tailhook.

Quite honestly if it was just to announce that they had the tailhook fixed they wouldn't need to do this.  They'd loudly and proudly proclaim it so that they could shut up people like me over the issue.

This means that they're sensing that the Navy is ready to go a different direction.  They're seeking to shore up/develop support for the airplane.

They're about to go from nervous to desperate if they can't solve the tailhook.

Sidenote:  Could Lockheed Martin be so desperate that they're lining us all up for a land based Navy fighter proposal with regard to the F-35? 

Islamic Terrorist Administrative Error. They behead a fellow rebel...

via CNN.

(CNN) -- Radical anti-government fighters in Syria mistakenly beheaded a wounded fellow rebel soldier after assuming he was a supporter of President Bashar al-Assad, according to an online statement from the radical fighters' group.
A separate online video showed a gruesome display of radical fighters holding what appeared to be the victim's head.
After the beheading earlier this week, the victim was determined to be Mohammed Fares, an anti-government fighter wounded in clashes against the Syrian Army earlier, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On Thursday, an online statement from a spokesman for the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), whose fighters apparently carried out the beheading of Fares, called for forgiveness for the killers and asked for "restraint and piety" from anti-government supporters.
"We call on God to accept Mohammed Fares into his Kingdom and to forgive his brothers that sought to rid us of the enemies of God and our enemies," Omar Al-Qahatani said in Arabic in the ISIS statement.

I wonder if he gets bumped up to 144 virgins now?

Too much?

Too soon?

Ah get over it.  This is weird, ironic, semi-funny and an indication of who we're dealing with in the Middle East.

Time to go.