Troubled Lockheed Copter Needs New Review, Inhofe Tells Pentagon

via Bloomberg.

The Pentagon needs to undertake another review of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s $31 billion CH-53K heavy lift helicopter program amid continuing technical problems and delays, according to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.


Republican Senator James Inhofe said the importance of the CH-53K King Stallion to the Marine Corps means that a “comprehensive, independent update” on the long-delayed program is overdue. Inhofe’s role leading the committee that authorizes defense spending means his request will almost certainly be heeded.

“We need to get it right, and this report should give us a current assessment and reestablish a baseline for the program to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely,” Inhofe said in a statement to Bloomberg News. The senator cited concern that the chopper “is more than a year behind schedule and has over 100 outstanding deficiencies that still require resolution.”


Inhofe’s request comes as the Navy plans to award a production contract for as many as 14 new King Stallions next month, though so far only two of a planned 200 helicopters are under contract. The Navy program office and Lockheed’s Sikorsky Aircraft unit are still working to address 126 technical deficiencies, according to the Pentagon’s latest report on the system. The Oklahoma senator stopped short of suggesting the contract not be signed.

Story here. 

What has the Marine Corps forgotten?  That NO ONE WEAPON SYSTEM is worth an astronomical cost.  NO ONE WEAPON SYSTEM is indispensable.  You equip the man, you don't man the equipment!

Does the CH-53K (if it can work right) mean an improved capability for the Marine Corps?

Yes.  Without a doubt.

But is that improvement in capability worth the price?

I'm not sure.

This program should already be under review.  Can you honestly say that this program shouldn't already be under Nunn-McCurdy?

My worry is that we're falling into the same trap as we did with the F-35.  We're deciding that weapon systems are worth "dying in a ditch" over.

Sorry bros but that's bullshit.

If it don't work then you either get the contractor to get his head out of his nether regions OR you move on to another contractor that can get you 90% of what you want.

Do I like the CH-53K?

Yep.

Do I like the costs or the delays?  Fuck no!

Give me marinized CH-47's if they can't get us this helo at a proper price on a proper schedule.

Side note.  Can anyone explain where they got 200 for the number of airframes they're looking at buying?  That's more than the total number of CH-53E's that the USMC bought.  We're looking at a more than one for one replacement while we're also buying more MV-22's than we had CH-46's.  We're buying EXCESS CAPACITY!  How is that being frugal with the taxpayers dollar?

Evasion Course | Training To Evade Capture

KNDS - European Main Battle Tank (EMBT) Field Testing

Turkey's First Armored Vehicle Electric "Scorpion II"

Thanks to Vodkar for the pic and the link!

Hate the govt but love their defense industry.  Turkey is really making strides! The concept is a little "different" but I like the lines of this beast.  I'd love to see it in the field.  If looks equal mobility (and it doesn't) then this thing should be able to get up and go...and cross all kinds of terrain.

2nd Eitan Prototype...

Thanks to Franck488 for the pic!

Did they add more armor to the side or is that the same as the first vehicle?  Guess it doesn't matter.  The EITAN is the finest 8x8 in the world today...

Open Comment Post. 25 April 2019

Open Comment Post. 24 April 2019

Red Knight 6 is talking mad shit!

I don’t want to be rude or anything but all I want to do is Load eff-ing Sabot. https://t.co/BLkRA7VJqz

— Red Knight 6, Commander, 1-81 AR (@RedKnightHQ66) April 23, 2019

Too funny.

AVX Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft Concept looks sweet!

Time for all you aviation bubbas to step up and correct me on what I'm seeing here.

Internal carriage of offensive payload should mean that this little puppy is quick.  I don't know how many hellfires or their future replacement this thing is gonna carry but if its 4 per side we're still looking at a robust payload of hate and hurt on the enemy.

I'm seeing what I think are 4 stingers on the wingtips.  Why the Army is so wedded to that limited weapon system is beyond me but it's there so we probably won't see them move up to what I consider as the minimum...sidewinders.  Side note.  Would the ceptor missile be a better performer?  Don't know. 

Moving on we see the standard AVX pushers at the back but what has me particularly jazzed is the idea that we're seeing a relatively small helicopter that's mounting impressive firepower.  We don't know the scale but the rotors extend past the body of the helicopter.

The best thing about this competition in my mind?

Even if AVX or another competitor loses they're still going to be able to get a model flying.  We're going to have advanced the tech and we might see models adapted to civilian or SOCOM or Allied use that didn't win the Army contract.

Armed Escorts Drop Off Migrants Near Ajo, Arizona

What in the actual hell is going on at our border?  Migrants are getting armed escorts? 

Who is paying for this?  Who is behind it and what is the profit motive if we're assuming that these migrants don't have the resources to pay for it themselves?

Criminal organizations?  Govt?  Private sector?

This is weird.  This is unusual to the max.  It just seems all kinds of wrong.  I want to know the hows and whys. 

Once again I find myself heading down a rabbit hole because this doesn't seem organic at all.  It seems agenda driven and that thought takes me to places I don't want to go.

Royal Norwegian Army leading NATO Enhanced Forward Presence BattleGroup in Lithuania...

In Lithuania, the company commander leads his men from this Fennek. He has soldiers from Spain and Slovenia under his command there. While he receives information via the radio, he drives quickly from one place to another in order to be as well informed as possible about the constantly changing situations. #eFP

Weird rig to use as your command vehicle but if it works, it works.  I guess the speed and high mobility are a plus but I'm not seeing all the antenas I'd expect to see from a vehicle being used by the BattleGroup Commander.

Additionally he must be a one man band kind of operator.  Limited comms, small crew and zooming from place to place to get eyes on?

Seems kinda risky in a real shooting war but if it works, it works.  I just had no idea you could exercise that much control over a widely dispersed, multinational formation the way they're apparently doing it.

I'm beyond impressed....I'm kinda in awe.  Didn't think it could be done this way.

173rd Airborne Brigade hits Juliet Drop Zone....pic by SPC Ryan Lucas

F-35 News. The Joint Strike Fighters worse nightmare come true...Trump to nominate Shanahan as SecDef...

Thanks to Moebius2249 for the link!

via FoxNews.

President Trump is expected to formally nominate Patrick M. Shanahan to be his permanent defense secretary as soon as next week, two administration officials tell Fox News. This, after an internal Pentagon investigation concluded that the acting defense secretary did not show any bias in favor of his former employer, aerospace giant Boeing.

Shanahan worked at Boeing for over 30 years before coming to the Pentagon as then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s deputy at the start of the Trump administration.

Shanahan’s nomination had been held up by the White House since the Pentagon inspector general opened an investigation into Shanahan’s conduct following a report in Politico days after taking over for Mattis alleging Shanahan called Boeing-rival Lockheed Martin’s advanced F-35 program “f—ed up” and said the company didn’t know how to run a defense program following years of cost overruns and delays to the fifth-generation fighter jet.

Story here. 

Wow.

Make no mistake about it.  The F-35 is on this guys radar.  But that's not where the big news I think will be coming.

What do I expect?

I think we're gonna see some "business like approaches" forced on the Pentagon.

What do I mean?

Remember the 5% cut across all govt agencies that was proposed by Trump? Remember how it suddenly got reversed for the Pentagon?  My guess is that will be back on board in a big way.  As a matter of fact I wouldn't be surprised to see Trump push a 7 to 10 percent cut soon.

It's gonna be all about govt spending and the economy with the Presidential election coming up.

The Pentagon is about to get rocked and I think this guy is gonna want to claim scalps while at the same time please Trump.

F-35 News. Some are speculating that oxygen deprivation led to the Japanese F-35 crash...

Thanks to Fonck for the link!

via Asia Review.

 In the weeks since a Japanese F-35A stealth fighter jet crashed into the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. and Japan have not yet found either the plane or the cause of the incident. But it could be linked to a system that has bedeviled the American military for years.
All F-35s have onboard oxygen generation systems, or OBOGS, which draw oxygen from the surrounding air and supply it to the pilot at the high concentration necessary to operate at high altitudes. The U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have used OBOGS for more than three decades, in models including the F-16 and F/A-18 as well as certain training planes.

But since the U.S. began using OBOGS in the F-22 in 2008, there have been more than 20 cases of F-22 pilots experiencing symptoms indicating a lack of oxygen, apparently due to problems with the system. An F-22A crashed in November 2010 in an incident that may have resulted from an oxygen shortage.

Low levels of oxygen in the bloodstream -- known as hypoxia -- can cause sweating, headaches and dizziness, followed by vision problems and trouble making decisions, and eventually loss of consciousness. After the 2010 crash, the U.S. military temporarily stopped using OBOGS in the F-22 while it worked to address the issue, in part by replacing components in the system.

But the problem persisted in multiple jet models, including the F-35A. The military has not worked out the cause but reportedly has increased the emergency oxygen supply provided to pilots in case the OBOGS fails, among other precautions. Put bluntly, it is employing every trick it can think of to keep using the system.

With the Japan incident, the Air Self-Defense Force pilot called a halt to his training exercise just before the crash. This suggests that he realized something was wrong, after which the situation quickly deteriorated. That would fit with hypoxia caused by an OBOGS malfunction.

Story here. 

This fits but is a bit curious at the same time.  The US military has been faced with this situation for awhile now.

I remember the F-22 crash and what was the response?  To blame the pilot.  Later they admitted that the OBOGS system is trash.

Have they solved it?

Nope.

It appears that troubles remain for a system that has been in service for decades.  What I'd like to know is why it's so hard to troubleshoot.  Take a look at when it worked without issue and then trace the changes in its design.

This doesn't seem like it should be a tough engineering problem to solve yet here we are.

Did the Russians just change their LST to an LPD?

Thanks to S300V4 for the pic!

Question.  Does the ship above look like the pic below?

Can't be sure but it looks like the Russians have done a design change to this class.  They're going from LST type ship to an LPD design.

Does this mean that they're about to get a bit more serious about out of area operations with their Naval Infantry?

What I'd like to know is whether or not this hull is ice capable.  My bet is that it is.  The Russians appear to be gearing up for a serious run at the arctic and their Airborne and Naval Infantry seem to be at the forefront of that effort.

Open Comment Post. 23 April 2019.

Former Marine arrested for that "action" against the N. Korean Embassy in Madrid...

via Marine Times.

A man suspected of involvement in a mysterious dissident group’s February raid on North Korea’s Embassy in Madrid was arrested in Los Angeles by U.S. authorities.

Christopher Ahn, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested and charged Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The specific charges against Ahn were not immediately clear.

The person could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Separately, on Thursday, federal agents raided the apartment of Adrian Hong, a leader of the Free Joseon group, the person said. Hong was not arrested.

Story here. 

Wow.  Just plain fucking wow.

No way in hell this action was performed without the consent/knowledge and maybe assistance of the CIA/NSA or some other agency.

Wild cat units aren't this sophisticated.

I just hope they don't let this dude hang in the wind.  They didn't announce charges so I'm suspecting that this will be allowed to quietly die...and since the American public has the attention span of a gnat, no one will probably even wonder what happened.

US Army Soldiers surrender weapons to Mexican troops WHILE ON US SOIL!

via Washington Examiner.

A senior defense official says the Pentagon is reviewing how U.S. soldiers responded during an incident this month in which Mexican troops detained and disarmed Americans on Texas soil.

The standoff between two U.S. soldiers and as many as six Mexican military officials on April 13 is believed to be the first of its kind, according to the senior defense official from Northern Command, or NORTHCOM. "This is the first incident that we're aware of that the two militaries came together," the official told the Washington Examiner.

Two Army soldiers from Washington state were sitting in an unmarked Customs and Border Protection vehicle south of the U.S. barrier but north of the international boundary near Clint, Texas, when Mexican troops moved in on them.

The Mexican soldiers, each carrying FX-05 Xiuhcoatl rifles, detained, disarmed, and questioned the U.S. troops. One soldier's Beretta M9 service pistol was taken from him and temporarily confiscated.

The Pentagon is now investigating the incident, which the official said "will help us modify any instructions that we're giving the troops" about how to deal with such a situation.

Troops deployed to the U.S.-Mexico boundary go through joint readiness staging, or training on how to handle dangerous situations in the area. The official said he could not recall anything similar to last Saturday's encounter having taken place during a previous active-duty troop deployment.

No official protocol exists for how to navigate a run-in with a foreign military, but the senior official said the soldiers were trained to "de-escalate" the situation. By surrendering at least one gun, they followed existing protocol, though it left them unarmed.

Story here. 

This shit is pissing me off.  First we have Sailors surrender their boats to a bunch of Iranians and now we have Soldiers surrendering their weapons to Mexicans while on US soil?

I'm raging.

I want to know why NORTHCOM commander isn't fired yet.

I want to know why they would send our troops out to the border with only sidearms.

This is bullshit and you can't convince me otherwise.

NAVAIR is seeking a new gearbox for the CH-53K...kinda late in the game for that huh?

via IHS Janes.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) is looking to address ongoing problems with the Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion's main gearbox (MGB) by sourcing an alternate supplier.

The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) issued a solicitation on 22 April for alternative sources for the MGB to mitigate current production risk and secure volume increases for future production.

The CH-53K is fitted with an advanced drive system incorporating a multiple-path split-torque gearbox with load-sharing capability, which enables the helicopter to use the extra power of the three General Electric T408-GE-400 turboshaft engines.

This gearbox was one of three critical technologies on the helicopter that had not reached the desired levels of maturity by the time system development was launched in late 2005. Problems still had not been fully resolved in 2014 when a redesign of the MGB delayed the aircraft's maiden flight, which was finally achieved in October 2015. The US Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) 2018 report released earlier this year noted the MGB's low reliability and reduced service-life projections.

Story here. 

I forgot this helicopter has been in development since 2005.  Kinda crazy.  What is it with aviation programs in the US that seems to drag out development for decades now!

To think that they need a new gearbox at this stage of the game is weird too. It might be naive but I would think they'd have that VERY IMPORTANT part figured out by now.  To say that they're looking for a new spells nothing but trouble to me.

Pile in on this one aviation guys.  Tell me how off the mark I am.  Oh but while you're doing that tell me again why a 100 million plus helicopter is such a great deal after all this time.

Most Army Squads Falling Short on Infantry Skills

via Military.com

The U.S. Army says it will meet its readiness goals by 2022, but young sergeants in most infantry and close-combat units don't know how to maneuver their squads or do basic land navigation, Military.com has learned.

For example, sergeants in the majority of the Army's active brigade combat teams (BCTs) don't know the importance of gaining a foothold when leading squads on room-clearing operations, according to a series of report cards from the service's Asymmetric Warfare Group, known as the AWG.

The findings come at a time when the Army is racing to transition from the counter-insurgency mindset that existed in Iraq and Afghanistan to one focused on preparing combat units to fight in large-scale, conventional battles against a foe of equal strength.

Story here. 

This ain't shocking or alarming.  After spending years on a terror hunt and operating out of FOBs they're now expecting to turn on a dime back to conventional warfare against peer competition?

Not bloody likely.

A couple of years and the rust will be scrubbed off.

What should be more concerning is whether or not Battalion Commanders even know how to maneuver their forces.

Every squad will fail if the Battalion doesn't put them in position to win. This is one time where bottom up is the wrong direction to correct things.  If the Army wants to set the right tone then it needs to go from the top down.  Bang on Regiment/Battalion first.  Company/Platoons/Squads will fall in line.  It won't work the other way around.