Scorpion Jet: Fly Angry

500 pound hog!

These things are mutating and this will get out of control unless we get serious about the hog problem.

Read the story and watch the vid here...

Sidnote:  These animals have no natural predators once they get over a certain size.  Plus they will eat anything.  Snakes, rats, even smaller mammals are all prey items for these pests.

Locked Cockpit Doors...

Isn't it ironic?

We locked the doors to the cockpit to keep terrorist passengers from gaining access to the flight controls.

Now the latest theory on the missing airliner is that one of the pilots might have been either suicidal or a terrorist and that he might have hijacked or crashed the plane (or both).

Its pure craziness.  You can't build enough safeguards to prevent evil from doing its thing.  All you can do is be prepared and equipped to fight it.

It would be heartbreaking to learn (and this is a massive what-if) that one of the pilots was fighting to save the plane while the other was fighting to destroy it...and the passengers sitting in the back were unable to help because they couldn't get through the security door.

Russians conduct administrative landing in Crimea...

Definitions via Joint Doctrine for Landing Force Operations.

administrative landing. An unopposed landing involving
debarkation from vehicles which have been administratively
loaded. (JCS Pub 1- 02)

 administrative loading. A loading system which gives primary
consideration to achieving maximum utilization of troop and
cargo space without regard to tactical considerations.
Equipment and supplies must be unloaded and sorted before they
can be used. (JCS Pub 1-02)

Story via Chicago Tribune...

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - A Russian warship unloaded trucks, troops and at least one armored personnel carrier at a bay near Sevastopol in Crimea on Friday morning, as Moscow continued to build up its forces on the Ukrainian peninsula.
A Reuters journalist saw trucks driving off the Yamal 156, a large landing ship, at Kazachaya Bay near Sevastopol. One flatbed truck was carrying an armored personnel carrier (APC).
The vehicles drove off a landing ramp on to a low shoreline of open ground near an oil storage terminal from the ship, which is capable of carrying over 300 troops and up to a dozen APCs.
On Monday, a Reuters journalist saw a column of at least 100 Russian vehicles, including trucks, APCs and artillery on a road in the same area. It is Ukrainian territory, some 15 km (10 miles) from the port at Sevastopol which Moscow leases from Kiev to station its Black Sea Fleet.

This is starting to turn into a total mess on the international stage.  US and European leaders have been found wanting.  Leadership across the board is nowhere to be found.

However.

From a military standpoint this is a golden opportunity.  We're getting a small glimpse at Russian amphibious assault doctrine, where it fits in their overall planning and how effective they are at the art form.

One LST debarking troops and vehicles at a Crimean port might not seem like a big deal.  To an observer of the Russian Naval Infantry, its huge.

I'm still digesting the info from this recently announced activity but one thing becomes apparent.

The French gave the Russians the keys to the amphibious assault kingdom when they sold them Mistrals.  Before we would see small actions from the sea...at best.  With just Mistral class LHD in service they now are capable of putting a Battalion sized force ashore with one ship.  For a Navy that specializes in single ship operations this is huge.  We should have protested that sale harder.

Russian Artillery Drill via English Russia...

J-15 arriving. via Chinese Military Review...

Japanese Defense Planning Vid. The executive summary version.

FREMM Frigate Normandie undergoing sea trials via Navy Recognition...

Of special interest in this vid is the Narwhal 20mm RWS.  Read about that impressive setup here.

High Mobility Multi-Purpose Vehicles worldwide...

I was chasing what I now believe is a mythical amphibious assault vehicle based on the TulPar IFV when I came across the Otokar Ural.  That led me to wonder...while we've been struggling to get a replacement to the Humvee into service, what have our allies and potential foes been doing?

The Brits have put the Ocelot into service...

The Italians have the Iveco LMV (also used by the Brits and Russians)...

The Japanese have Komatsu LAV...

The Russians have the GAZ Tigre...

Meanwhile we can't even get the JLTV into LOW RATE production!  Amazing!

Extraction by Alex J Jessup

Extractionby AlexJJessup

J-20 sensors will match the F-35's.

Any advantage that the F-35 MIGHT have had against Chinese fighters is a thing of the past.  Check this out from the Free Beacon....

A Chinese Academy of Military Sciences official, Du Wenlong, told Chinese state television on Feb. 20 that the new J-20’s shortened exhaust nozzles, along with tail and vertical fin modifications, are designed to reduce radar detection.
Du also said that a “revolutionary” breakthrough allowed the twin engines to increase both power and reliability.
China’s inability to manufacture quality jet engines has been a weakness of its aircraft manufacturing programs.
Du also said that the electro-optical targeting system provides better surveillance and strike capabilities against both land and sea targets.
The J-20 also has a larger weapons bay than the U.S. F-22, which allows it to carry more powerful missiles that can be used against “aircraft carrier and foreign AEGIS ships,” Du said.
U.S. officials said the new J-20 had undergone ground tests, but it had not been flight tested as of early March.
Richard Fisher, a specialist on Chinese weapon systems, said the new J-20 was flight tested on March 1 and demonstrated the enhanced fifth generation jet fighter features.
Fisher, with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said it is “very curious” that the new J-20 featured its new electronic targeting system under its nose. That location increased its field of view and is similar to the targeting system on the F-35.
“This targeting system and a set of distributed high-power infrared sensors give the F-35 a previously unrivaled ‘situational awareness,’ but the now it is clear that the J-20 will have a similar targeting system and its own set of distributed sensors,” Fisher said.
“If as part of their espionage, China had also gained engineering insights into the F-35′s very advanced sensor systems, that could prove disastrous to its combat potential barring a rapid redesign and improvements before entering service,” Fisher added.
Advanced sensors on the F-35 were intended as insurance for the jet not having the best capabilities for maneuvering in flight, he said.
“But if the Chinese, via cyberespionage, have gained insights into its sensor system, then it is to be expected that China is also working on ways to jam or otherwise degrade its advantage,” Fisher said.

Read the entire article here.

I can't wait to read the latest from the F-35 apologist on this one.

You want to make the V-22 a gunship? Learn from history!

The latest and greatest on the Commandant's wish list is to turn the MV-22 into a gunship.

We've seen it modded to act as an aerial refuel-er.  Its being pitched as a Carrier On-Board Delivery Vehicle.  We've seen proposals for it to act as a baby AWACs so a gunship version shouldn't be seen as far fetched.

But how do you do it?

History has the answer but the aviation community won't like it.  A quick blast to the past....

Pic via Vietnam Huey
1967 - UH-1E gunship VMO-6 A UH-1E gunship with VMO-6 based at Ky Ha near Chu Lai (I Corps) in 1967. VMO-6 was tasked with flying armed escort for Marine transport helicopters, so most of their Hueys during this period were gunships. Marine rotary aircraft during this period wore more subdued markings. The high visibility yellow tail boom band has been removed. The aircraft number is painted in flat black on both the frame behind the pilots' doors and the tail. The national emblem has also been removed from the aircraft. The only high visibility markings that remain are the red step covers and vertical stripes on the cabin sides and engine cowling. Like most Marine UH-1Es, this aircraft has a tail boom-mounted antenna and rounded housing on the cabin roof.

The evolution of the Huey into the Cobra tells us how to get where we want to go without wasting time or money (initial outlays might be higher but the end result will be achieved much sooner thereby lowering costs...hey, it works with the F-35 right?).

1989 Boeing Vertol AV-22-LSOC Ghost
by melkorius

My idea is simple.  Skip the Huey phase of development (as seen in the great illustration above) and lets go straight to the guns.  Lose the cargo area and slim down that fuselage to practically nothing.  Upgrade the engines to put out more power.  Put the pilots in tandem instead of side by side.  The aim?  To have as narrow a plane as possible.  Additionally you add the pylons from the AH-1Z onto this beast, its chin turret too, use the same targeting FLIR etc...and we call it a day.  Yeah, we're developing a new wrapping but the bits are coming from stuff we have in service.

The amazing thing?  We've already seen concepts that strike pretty close to the mark.  All we need are some designers to do the 1960's thing and put the MV-22 on a diet.

Bell D-314F

The truly depressing part of all this?

Even if my recommendation is followed and they do the MV-22 gunship in the mold of the Huey/Cobra conversion you're still going to be left with one undeniable truth.

It still won't be as effective as a Super Tucano...and will be much more expensive too...

China is a beast...

A few minutes ago China released sat images of what it believes is debris of the missing airliner.

They're from the 9th.

If we assume a couple of things...like the images are degraded to not reveal how good their sats are....like their was a serious discussion about revealing how good their maritime survelliance is...like how they've suddenly become the big, caring brother of the region.

We can conclude that once again, the Chinese just won another propaganda battle.  They just out-teched us.  Apologist in both parties can continue to do their thing but its obvious ... China is a beast and they're drinking our milkshake.

The JSF Program Office has lost its mind....

Check out this article from Business Week.

“The cost of an F-35A in 2019 will be somewhere between $80 and $85 million, with an engine, with profit, with inflation,” U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Christopher Bogdan, the Pentagon’s manager of the program, told reporters in Canberra today. “The important thing about that is when you can start offering a fifth-generation airplane that rivals fourth-generation prices, you’ve got a pretty good airplane.”
Australia, Japan and Israel are among nations that have placed orders for Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT:US)’s F-35, the Pentagon’s most expensive weapon system, which has been beset by rising costs and technical troubles, including jittery images in the pilot’s helmet. The Pentagon has repeatedly questioned the plane’s progress, finding in January that the fighter wasn’t sufficiently reliable in training flights last year and its complex software system was causing difficulties.
The Pentagon has projected a price tag of $391.2 billion to build a fleet of 2,443 F-35s, a 68 percent increase from the projection in 2001, measured in current dollars. The number of aircraft the Pentagon plans to buy is 409 fewer than called for originally.
The F-35 development program, which has an end-October 2017 completion date, is running four to six months late, mainly due to software complexities, Bogdan said. Other problems remain in the reliability and maintainability of the aircraft, he said.
“From a schedule standpoint, up until 2016 I’m pretty confident,” Bogdan said. Beyond that, “things get a little fuzzier,” he said.

Excuse me but WHAT THE FUCK!

How in God's name is this guy quoting a price of about 50 million per airplane (because he included the price of the engine which is about 25 mill) in 5 years????

The trajectory of the program indicates no such thing!  We're still waiting on the fix to the bulkhead issue, the design has yet to become stable, the F-35C still hasn't landed on the carrier etc...

It has to be because he's in Australia and he's desperate to get the Aussies to sign on the dotted line.  So any line will do as long as it works and gets good publicity.

80 million a piece?  Bogdan needs to get drug tested.

Gear Question.

Sgt. First Class Alexis Viamonte, an infantryman and platoon sergeant assigned to the 2/325 AIR White Falcons, is competing in this week's 82nd Airborne Division Noncommissioned Officer and Trooper of the Year Competition.
Tune in tomorrow to discover the Falcon's fourth representitive in the competition to determine the 82nd Airborne Division's best NCO and Paratrooper of the Year!

Hey all, a quick gear question.

Is it common now to wear chest rigs (I'm assuming that's a chest rig) so low now?  I can see the bio-mechanical advantages of doing it, better range of motion, easier to grab different pieces of gear etc....but if this is now common then aren't we going back to the old style gear just in a different package?

Let me know where I'm wrong and let me know exactly what I'm seeing in this paratroopers loadout.

Oh and good luck SFC Viamonte!  Kick ass!

Congrats China. You just remilitarized Japan. MUST WATCH VIDEO!!!

Asia should be concerned.  Japan is remilitarizing and will soon be capable of conducting offensive operations throughout the region.

I don't say that to say that they don't have a military.  No.  I say that to mean we're about to see offensive warfare capability reintroduced into their forces.  Japan will once again be able to take and hold territory throughout the region.

Congrats China.  You pushed so hard that the Japanese are gearing up with an eye toward fighting you.

Note:  Compare and contrast the completeness of Japanese planning.  Also note the missile armed MV-22 shown in the vid!  They are going to take our gear and make it better.  I'm almost tempted to have the Marine Corps wait and buy whatever mods the Japanese do to the AAV and then buy it!

Iran's Weapons Shipment: The Full Disclosure

Iran's Weapons Shipment: The Full Disclosure

On March 5, 2014, IDF forces intercepted an Iranian weapons shipment to Gaza terrorists. For the first time, the IDF has released photos of the entire shipment. With its weapons exposed to the world, Iran can no longer deny its intentions to terrorize Israeli civilians.

Weapons found on-board:

- 40 rockets (type M-302), with a range of up to 160 kilometers

- 181 mortar shells

- Approximately 400,000 7.62 caliber rounds.

The sanctions are basically off, they're still enriching uranium and they're selling oil.

Why would Iran take the risk of continuing getting caught arming Hezbollah at this moment?  What are they up to?

Amos' SPMAGTF-CR morphing into a land based MEU.

via Marine Corps Times...

The Spanish government will allow an additional 300 Marines to be based at Morón Air Base to respond to crises in Africa, the Defense Department announced Monday.
The Marine Corps has the go-ahead to boost the size of its Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response from about 550 Marines to 850, said Eileen Lainez, a spokeswoman at the Pentagon. Spain also will allow the unit to remain at Morón Air Base for another year.
The land-based crisis response force was stood up last year to fill a gap in available Navy amphibious ships in the region. The crisis-response Marines can be tapped to carry out a variety of operational missions — including embassy reinforcement — throughout Africa.
The unit typically comprises about 550 Marines, six MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and two KC-130J aerial refueling planes.
Spain also approved additional Marine Corps aircraft to be based there, Agence France-Presse reported.

Read the whole thing here.

A couple of things stand out.

1.  Amos is attempting to address the survivability issue of the unit by bolstering its numbers.  This is a two part concern on his part.  The first regards his legacy.  Unless he can do a better sales job of the unit to the Corps then this will be another one of his ideas that is quickly tossed in the trash heap.  The second deals with it attempting to replicate a MEU.  Marines are tired of the second land army moniker that a few uninformed people tagged us with.  This adds fuel to that fire.  Quite honestly this is a US Army mission.  As a matter of fact to be specific.  THIS IS A 101ST AIRBORNE MISSION!

2.  The next issue is the reality of Marine Corps manning and rotation.  Why are we reinventing the MEU as a land and not sea based force?  Do we have enough personnel to fully staff normal MEU and UDP deployments, and still run SPMAGTF-CR's?  I know we have a GLUT of MV-22's but what about the Infantry, Logistics and other aircraft?  I don't think so.

Long story short.

This is a legacy move on the part of Amos that is his attempt to have the history books look more kindly on his tenure as commandant.

It won't work.

This concept gets shit canned as soon as he leaves office on budget grounds alone.

Amos is done.  No one is listening to him anymore and everyone is looking at their watches.  Its past time for him to leave. 

Missing Airliner "what if"...

Most people are following the story of the missing Malaysian airliner.

Just doing a quick jaunt down memory lane, this whole incident is familiar.  And that brings me to my what if.

What if the Chinese shot down the airliner?  The Russians did the deed with Korean Airlines Flight 007 and many are still not satisfied with the results of that investigation.

Terrorism seems to be being ruled out.  So I ask again.  What if?

Sidenote:  Don't take this seriously.  Not at all.  Just another theory to throw on the fire.  It is part of the investigative process.  All possibilities must be examined for the real truth to be found.

Blast from the past....Strategic Army Corps (STRAC) Fourth

Note in the vid the terrain that they're rapelling down.  That looks like Mountain phase of Ranger school.  I wonder if they snuck some early Ranger training in on us?

Additionally note the water ops with the M59 APC.  This early model but bigger M-113 was a beast that info is hard to find.  This is the first vid I've seen of it actually swimming.

Last consider the idea of the "Strategic Army Corps".  This early "rapid deployment force" was suppose to out Marine the Marine Corps.  That meant hard training and high standards of discipline and appearance.

That soon devolved into simply looking sharp.  But the obvious remains.  The Army's future lies in its past.  The Strategic Army Corps ethos needs to be brought back...but done right.

It could literally save the conventional Army.