Have you forgotten about these issues?

I marvel at how short an attention span the US public (probably populations world wide) has when it comes to important events.

Remember this????

*  Bring back our girls.  Children are kidnapped, the White House and celebrities start hash-tags and now a couple of months later nothing has happened.  Christian children have been abducted by Muslim savages and nothing.

*  Missing airliner.  That Malaysian airliner is still missing.  No one gives a rats ass about this probable case of terrorism.

*  Ukraine still burns.  Yep, an offensive is supposedly going on right now but no one cares.

*  Thailand.  They had a coup and now we hear nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.

*  Syria.  The rebels at one time had the government on the run.  Not only did they turn around those losses but the Syrian govt appears to have stabilized the situation to such a degree that the rebels turned their attention to Iraq.

*  Iraq.  Again, the situation appears to have stabilized with the Sunni's having carved out their own state.  The Kurds too.

*  Sanctions against Russia.  No word on where we are with sanctions against Russia and it appears that a kind of status quo has been allowed.

This is just off the top of my head and only covers the first part of this year.

The world burns.

Flash-point: Murrieta...

via The Daily Caller...

Federal agents will be arriving in Murrieta, Calif., the site of ongoing protests against the recent flood of illegal immigrants into the town, on Monday to quell protesters, Breitbart has learned.
Murrieta has been in the news since June 1 when protesters blocked a convoy of buses carrying illegal immigrants to a local border patrol station. (RELATED: Hispanics Split Over Obama’s Border Meltdown)
Protesters have not left yet, and federal agents are supposedly fed up with American citizens being concerned about their hometown.
John Henry, a Murrieta resident for over two decades, was told by local officers that the feds will be barricading streets.
“We’re being told that federal Marshals or ICE will be here in the next few days and that they are bringing riot gear,” Henry said. “They’re apparently going to be blocking off the street with concrete blockades so that no vehicles can get through. The River County Sheriff’s Department showed up last night and brought a huge watch tower that shoots up into the air 35 feet.”

I'm calling bullshit on Federal Agents being pissed off about this.

Its been awhile since I've had a chat with one but all the door kickers I've ever ran across wouldn't give a damn about the protests.  They might find it interesting, they might discuss tactics but being pissed?

Nope.

Now leadership of the various agencies is something else.  This is lining up as another incident in the making.  Militias have arrived and depending on their motivation this could get ugly.  Additionally, if federal officials (talking about leadership) are indeed pissed then this could lead to a tragedy.

It all boils down to one thing.

Who's showing up.

US Marshals?  FBI?  Doubt it.  ATF?  Secret Service Uniformed division?  Probably not.  Customs? Probably....  If its elements of Customs then this is going to be a clusterfuck from hell.  This will bear watching.  I expect some drama.  I expect over reliance on crowd control devices (pepper spray--bear sized and the noise devices) and for the American public to be further divided.

This will probably get ugly.

BAE Systems - Future Aircraft Technology Concepts

I buy every bit of this except for the onboard 3-d printing (the joined aircraft seems like fantasy but I can see the benefits so maybe...).  I just can't wrap my brain around how you would do it unless you have the materials stuffed inside the back of a C-5 or A400.  Doing it out the back of a strike aircraft seems like pure bs.

Thales - Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers Simulation

Saturday Funny. Rude Goldberg Machine...

Task Force Smith. Its gonna happen again if the US Army isn't careful.

I've been looking at cuts to the US Army with more than a little alarm.  I've been stunned by how much they're cutting.

Surprisingly though, I don't hear much complaint from Soldiers on the issue.  They accept it as a fact that the Army will be eviscerated after every war.

That's too bad.  Task Force Smith is required study in the Marine Corps and the teaching of it isn't kind.  It goes a little like this.  US Army units were rushed to Korea and those units were unprepared for combat.  They got mauled and it was up to the Marine Corps to save them.  It inflated non-sense and doesn't tell the whole story but it forms the basis of our very ethos.

We will be most ready when the nation is least.

My fear is that we're looking at another Task Force Smith in the future.  We will soon (I think) run up against an issue where we have to act.  Where we will have no other choice but to deploy ground forces.

And at that time the nation will be least ready...and so will the US Army if they keep on their current path.

Check out this article from the Free Beacon and then check out the extent of the coming pain in this blog post from American Mercenary.

America's enemies are watching.  They understand that the public is war weary.  What better time to strike?

EA-18 Growlers are the only plan "B" that makes sense for the Fleet Air Arm...

It should be obvious to even the biggest supporters of the F-35 that continued troubles in development should be expected.

If we can acknowledge that fact then it also makes sense for some of the air arms around the world to start lining up plan B's.

For the Fleet Air Arm, the Royal Navy's air force, the EA-18G is the only option that makes sense.

Its very simple really.  The Gripen is a nice light weight fighter but it doesn't have a naval version.  It could be developed but we can expect additional costs, performance penalties because of the added weight and other problems that can't be predicted.  The Typhoon is in the same light.  It doesn't have a ready made naval version and converting it to carrier use will be problematic.  The Rafale is a ready made candidate for use aboard Queen Elizabeth class carriers but its upgrade path is sketchy at best, its expensive as Tiffany diamonds and its adoption has only one benefit...to strengthen commonality with a European country.

The EA-18 is superior for a number of reasons.  Its affordable, has a well laid out upgrade path and perhaps most importantly, the US Navy is making it the center piece of how it will fight into the future.  Ever heard of the Naval Integrated Fire Control - Counter Air (NIFC-CA) Concept?

As a plan B the Royal Navy will have the benefit of sliding into the most comprehensive naval air warfare concept on the planet.

Read about the concept here.

In my mind its obvious.  The FAA will need to fall back onto the EA-18 when the F-35 goes belly up.

Oh and removing the ramp and installing EMALS will be expensive but not as expensive as buying the full allotment of F-35's.

The world is burning news. Captured Ukrainian female Hind pilot?

I was making a spin through the internet early this morning and ran across the above photo.

A Google search showed what I originally thought was a guy, but turns out to be a woman being held by Russian Separatists.

More to come.  Below is a video of one of her interrogations.

Sidenote:  I could be completely misreading this whole thing.  Google translate is really dropping the ball on this and I hadn't heard anything about it before now. If you have better info send it downrange asap.

UK to evaluate VBCIs?

Thanks for the article Jonathan..



via Defense Aerospace...

(Issued in French only; unofficial translation by Defense-Aerospace.com)
As part of the armaments section of the French-British Lancaster House agreements signed in 2010, the French army will place 19 VBCI infantry combat vehicles and two Caesar self-propelled guns at the disposal of the British Army for a period of six months.

In January, in the Mali theater of operations, the British Army’s chief of staff was able to appreciate the capabilities of the VBCI. The British Army had, at the time, officially requested the opportunity to evaluate this equipment, and today’s agreement is the result of that request.

The Letter of Intent formalizing the loan of the equipment was signed in London on July 1 by the chiefs of staff of the two countries’ armies.

France’s 1er Régiment de Chasseurs d’Afrique (1st African Rifle Regiment) will provide the necessary training, and the loan will have a very limited cost for France.

The UK's armored vehicle plans have always confused me.

They're upgrading the Warrior with a 40mm cannon, while at the same time procuring the ASCOD which is a similar sized vehicle to fulfill the function that the much smaller CVRT filled and now they're about to evaluate the VBCI.

I won't even delve into the confusion surrounding their retaining several MRAP type vehicle along with the outstanding Foxhound to fulfill some type of Light Infantry type force.

Kinda makes the USMC's woes seem like small potatoes.

Border Patrol Agent speaks out. This is getting beyond real.

My personal belief.

I think that this was a planned "crisis" that is totally backfiring.  I also believe that the White House thought that they could manage it in such a way as to make passage of a "comprehensive" immigration bill a reality during August.

This thing has spun out of control and passage of any bill isn't going to happen.

Add another log to the fire.  The American people are pissed and this isn't going to help.  

The world is burning news. Germany captures man who claims to be NSA Spy.

via New York Times...

BERLIN — In the latest turn in the yearlong tensions with Germany over American spying, a German man was arrested this week on suspicion of passing secret documents to a foreign power, believed to be the United States. The American ambassador, John B. Emerson, was summoned to the Foreign Office here and urged to help with what German officials called a swift clarification of the case.
The arrest came as Washington and Berlin were trying to put to rest a year of strains over the National Security Agency’s monitoring of Germans’ electronic data, including Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone, and just months after the collapse of an effort by Germany to strike a “no spy” accordwith the White House. While the White House and American intelligence officials refused to comment on the arrest, one senior American official said that reports in the German news media that the 31-year-old man under arrest had been working for the United States for at least two years “threaten to undo all the repair work” the two sides have been trying to achieve.

Amateurs.

That's what the American people placed in charge of our national security.

I mean seriously?  You can't properly run a 31 year old?  You can't have enough cut outs and distance between you and your organization to have deniability?

Amateurs is too good a word.  These people are incompetent.

There will be fall out from this incident.  We might not see it publicly but between this and Snowden our name is mud with our allies. 

Happy 4th of July...

“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government...”  
Thomas Jefferson

The above quote is from too much American Heroes Channel watching today....they're running a Revolutionary War marathon and its beyond compelling.  Check it out if you have time.

Happy 4th of July.

F-35 News. Queen Elizabeth christened, F-35 not there...

The above image is from Navy Times and sums up the future of the Fleet Air Arm.

The F-35 is not there.

By now, you've heard the news that the airplane has been grounded.  What should shock everyone is that the news came from the SecDef's office and not from the F-35 Program Office or HQMC.

That indicates that those two entities were over ruled.

But back to the FAA.

They are fucked.  Proper fucked at that.  The USMC has made allowances to have Harriers in service till 2030.  So has Spain.  The other allies have aircraft that can be upgraded...an expensive proposition but its there none-the-less.

The FAA put every ounce of its future into the F-35.

They drank the kool-aide and now its turning into a Jim Jones special (Google the name and you can read about the atrocity he committed against his followers...its where the term came from).

The ship is a marvel.  The over all planning by the Royal Navy...not so much.  This will be fun to watch and I can't wait to read the European blogs take on this turn of events.

F-35 News. The SecDef grounds the "White Elephant"...

Thanks to SpazSinbad for the link...

via Breaking Defense...

UPDATE One decision has finally been made. Late Thursday evening the Office of Secretary of Defense announced that the F-35 fleet was officially grounded. That’s right. Both OSD and the Joint Program Office used the term grounded, meaning the fleet will not fly until further notice and the causes of the fire have been found and ameliorating actions recommended.
“The technical air worthiness authorities of the Department of the Air Force and Department of the Navy have issued a directive to ground the F-35 fleet based on initial findings from the runway fire incident that occurred at Eglin Air Force Base on Monday, June 23. The root cause of the incident remains under investigation. Additional inspections of F-35 engines have been ordered, and return to flight will be determined based on inspection results and analysis of engineering data,” the release says.
The Joint Program Office release says teams searching for a cause of the June 23 fire “have been unable to pinpoint the precise cause of the malfunction.” The head of the F-35 program. Air Force Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan release, said his people ”aim to do what is prudent for the Enterprise at large without compromising the ongoing mishap investigation.” That language about compromising the investigation is a clear sign of the political sensitivities of the investigation.UPDATE ENDS

Its good to see that the SecDef finally took a bit of responsibility and is now protecting his people from the folly of his generals.

This should have been done long ago and for any other program would have been.

What should you watch carefully?

Lt Gen Bogdan.

"His people aim to do what is prudent for the enterprise at large without compromising the ongoing mishap investigation"?

That's short hand for we're going to push on with flying this plane across the Atlantic unless the boss says otherwise.

They shouldn't.

Hagel needs to step up and shut down the idiocy now.  I'd love to see this money pit end but barring that he at least needs to keep the planes on the ground until they know for certain what caused the mishap.

That's what leadership 101 demands.

Sidenote:  I stole the term White Elephant from American Mercenary.  Check out his latest on this ongoing theft of public funds here. 

The YJ-12 proves the point. We're going to have to fight to the beach.

via War on the rocks blog...

A realistic future scenario is an attack on two or more axes by two Chinese Flanker regiments (totaling 48 Su-30 MKK or J-11B Flanker fighter-bomber variants). These Flankers (roughly corresponding to U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter-bombers, capable of supersonic speeds, and possessing a combat radius of 1,500 kilometers) could each be armed with two to four YJ-12 ASCMs. Although the carrier strike group’s combat air patrol could shoot down a few of the Flankers before they launched their missiles, the strike group would still face the prospect of defending against over a hundred supersonic ASCMs approaching from several directions at a wave-top height. The group’s close-in air defenses would have less than 45 seconds to engage the missiles after they appeared on the horizon. The YJ-12s would employ a variety of sensor types to find their targets and execute dramatic cork-screw turns to evade final defenses. A study from the Naval Postgraduate School concluded that in past engagements of anti-ship missiles against alerted surface warships, 32 percent of the attacking missiles scored hits. If only five percent of such a saturation YJ-12 attack impacted targets, it would still be a bad day for the carrier strike group.

As I've said before.

The 100 mile launch point that the current Commandant is talking about is simply a sad joke.  Land based versions of this missile will go out 300 miles.

Like Navy Matters Blog has said...We're going to have to fight our way to the beach.

World War 2 scenarios of creating corridors for our amphibs to make runs into launch positions for our Amtracs; then protecting the Amtracs while they swim to the beach and the amphibs dash back out to sea; and then fighting our way to the objective is the only way that forcible entry will be done.

The fantasy that we can get far enough offshore to make things safe is a fantasy.

But its worse than that.

The sea base concept is in doubt now.  You set up a sea base 200 miles off shore and you're still vulnerable to attack with these missiles in service.

There is no easy way.

The US Navy and Marine Corps needs to steel themselves to reality.  If we're called to make an amphibious assault, its gonna be bloody, its gonna be messy and its gonna be risky as hell.

The world is burning news. Iraqi Shiite Army receives Mi-28NE Attack Helicopters.

via Janes...

Iraq has taken delivery of its first batch of Mil Mi-28NE 'Havoc' (Night Hunter) attack helicopters, as well as additional Mil Mi-35M 'Hind' assault helicopters, Russian state media announced on 2 July.
The first three Mi-28NE helicopters and four new Mi-35M helicopters arrived in-country aboard Antonov An-124 'Condor' transport aircraft, a military-diplomatic source reportedly told the ITAR-TASS news agency.
The report continued that all the helicopters had been delivered in a combat configuration, and were fully night-vision capable. According to Rostvertol figures recently seen by IHS Jane's , the Iraqi Army Aviation Command, which is part of the Iraqi Army and operates all the country's military helicopters, is set to receive a final total of 15 Mi-28NEs and 28 Mi-35Ms. Four of the latter are already in service.
The Mi-28N/Mi-28NE is an all-weather day-and-night anti-armour and anti-personnel attack platform that has only recently entered service with the Russian armed forces.
Similar in appearance to the Boeing AH-64 Apache, the Mi-28N is equipped with a mast-mounted, 360 o -scan, millimetre-wave radar, as well as a nose-mounted forward looking infrared (FLIR) turret. The tandem cockpit is heavily armoured to provide a high level of ballistic protection for the two crew members, and its two TV3-117VMA turbo-shaft engines provide added redundancy should either be hit by ground fire.
The Mi-28NE's weapons package includes: an under-nose, turret-mounted 2A42 30 mm cannon (with 250 rounds in side-mounted boxes); 9M114 Shturm (AT-6 'Spiral') or 9M120/9M121F Vikhr/Ataka-V (AT-12 'Swinger') air-to-surface missiles; 9M39 Igla-V (SA-16 'Gimlet') and R-73 air-to-air missiles; S-8 and S-13 rockets; and UPK-23-250V 23 mm gun pods.
The arrival of the Mi-28NEs and additional Mi-35Ms will provide an added boost to the Iraqi government's efforts to combat the Islamic State.

I remember the threat briefs we got on these helicopters (before your time young ones....look up CIA Briefs on Soviet Threat Weapons).  They were thought to be the Russian version of the Apache and a pure ground support platform.  The KA-52 was thought to be a dog fighter that would be an air to air platform to take out our attack helicopters (one of the reasons why the Super Cobra originally received Sidewinders...and of course the threat from fighters too)

Regardless.  This helicopter is a beast!

It might be similar to the Apache but its bigger and more heavily armored and armed.

Additionally it supposedly carries a pretty intense electronics suite for a helicopter and should serve the Shiite's well in their fight against the Sunni's (I have changed my designation of the "Iraqi Army"....This is a civil war and once again we're getting in the middle of a fight).

Czech Army goes for Pandur II 8x8's for next command vehicle.

Thanks for the link Jonathan...

via Janes...

The General Staff of the Army of the Czech Republic (ACR) favours the General Dynamics European Land Systems - Steyr Pandur II 8x8 armoured vehicle as the platform for a planned new command and communications vehicle, Ministry of Defence (MoD) sources have told IHS Jane's .
"The army favours the Pandur since it is already in service with the ACR and thus is viewed as the most compatible option. Furthermore, the Pandur offers the best ballistic protection and off road capabilities of all the vehicles being considered," an MoD source told IHS Jane's .
Other platforms under consideration by the ACR General Staff include the Tatra T-810 6x6 medium truck platform and the Vega 4x4 armoured vehicle made by indigenous vehicle producer SVOS Prelouc.

The Pandur II is that "other" European wheeled APC.

For some reason its never caught on but it is used by a few countries (and I read that US Army Special Forces had bought a few but I've never seen them in US service).

Its the first vehicle that I remember seeing mounting a large caliber RWS system and its amphibious.  I wonder why its not been more successful. 

F-35 News. USMC jets can make the trip, British owned can't????

Hat Tip to ELP Blog...

via UK Reuters...

It has stalled the departure of the planes that were to participate in the UK shows, but the U.S. Marine Corps said it was still planning to send four jets across the Atlantic.
"We are on track to participate in the air shows," said Marine Corps Captain Richard Ulsh.
The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) kicks off on July 11 followed by the Farnborough International Air Show starting on July 14.
Four Marine Corps F-35 B-model jets remain in southern Maryland waiting to leave for Britain. A fifth jet, owned by Britain, is still in Florida.
Strict UK liability laws mean British authorities need additional information before granting flight clearances. If something went wrong, the individual officer who approved the flight could be sued personally, the sources said.

Navy jets are grounded because the EXACT cause of the mishap has not been determined.

Same for USAF jets.

UK jets can't make the trip because of "liability" laws...which is short hand by the Royal Navy to the USMC that you guys are out of your fucking minds if you think that we're flying those jets till we know what happened.

Unfortunately for the Brit pilots assigned to the program, they're on exchange duty and operate under USMC rules.  That means you can still have British pilots flying the airplanes.

This whole thing has the whiff of MV-22 right before the mishap in the desert.

• The program was under intense scrutiny.

• Rumors of cancellation were swirling.

• The Marine Corps was desperate to get it into service.

People died, pilots were smeared (they still haven't been cleared to this day) and money was wasted because they attempted to run when they should still have been walking.

Lets hope that the massive effort to get the F-35 to Europe doesn't lead to a repeat of the MV-22 mishap in April 2000.

MPC News. Where is the experimentation?

Everyone knows my feelings about the current Commandant of the Marine  Corps.

If you're unfamiliar, suffice to say that I believe that he is a habitual liar, focused exclusively on the Air Wing to the detriment of the rest of the Marine Corps, has used his power and authority to punish Marines undeservedly, is a political opportunist, is bought and paid for by certain corporations and is totally unsat to hold the position of an Officer of Marines much less the leadership of the world's best fighting organization.

With that being said.

Where is the experimentation with regards to the Marine Personnel Carrier or the Program offices re-branding of it into the ACV 1.1?

Making a move from a vehicle that holds 17 Marines to one that holds 9 is a major undertaking.

How will that work exactly?  How will you disperse the squad among these vehicles?  The company?  How will the manning charts change because you have more vehicles in the AAV section aboard ship?  How will more vehicles in the AAV section affect cube space aboard ship?  How will they deploy? Since we're going to have mixed vehicles for at least a while will they swim to shore from ships along with AAVs?  Will AAVs swim while the MPC is carried ashore? Pure battle taxi or because they're supposedly more robust will we employ them in a quasi IFV fashion?

Making procurement decisions without proper planning is common in this current edition of HQMC.

We should have borrowed Strykers from the US Army, done proper experimentation with Wheeled Armored Personnel Carriers with Marine Corps Infantry/Amphibious Assault Vehicle Battalions and determined whether it was a fit or not. 

The problem is stark though.

We have little time before sequestration hits full force.  If the Republicans regain Congress as many expect then you better believe that cost cutting will be big on the list of things to do.

Second, we're already spending money, reprogramming funds etc...to follow a plan that apparently has been pulled out of someone's fat ass...and the fault of that isn't entirely Amos'.  The MPC concept arose from the fact that the EFV's cost ballooned out of control.  A mixed fleet was acceptable when the plan was for the assault force to arrive by EFV and the assault follow on echelon to come in on LCAC and ride into combat in MPCs.

Now they're talking of the MPC/ACV 1.1 hitting the beach in LCACs in the assault wave!

As late as this program is, everything needs to stop till Dunford comes into office. We've waited the entire term of this Commandant.  We can wait 3 months till a new one arrives and cleans up this mess.

Scratch Burger King from the list of fast food joints I would consider visiting...

via Miami NewTimes Blog.

As a celebration of gay pride, Miami-based Burger King introduced the Proud Whopper in San Francisco last week. The sandwich is the same as a regular whopper-- only wrapped in rainbow-hued paper with the inscription, "We are all the same inside." Proceeds from the sales of the limited-edition sandwich will be donated to the Burger King McLamore Foundation that promotes the advancement of education in teens.
The special burger with a message of equality will only be available at one Burger King restaurant in San Francisco through Thursday, July 3, but this looks like only the beginning of the company making a strong statement in support of the LGBT community.
Although the fast food giant has no plans of mass distributing the Proud Whopper, Fernando Machado, senior vice president of global brand management at Burger King says the company "may consider something even bigger later on."

I'm done.

Burger King is off the list of fast food joints I would consider visiting.  Don't mix advocacy of an issue with me trying to grab some grub.

This is too much.

A gay pride burger?  Really?  Seriously?  Fuck Burger King.