Nineteen Flights In One Day

F-35s were in the air across the nation, from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey to Edwards AFB in California, on 13 August 2012. Two aircraft launched from Edwards; four from NAS Patuxent River, Maryland; three from NAS Fort Worth JRB; and nine from Eglin AFB, Florida; and one from McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst for a total of nineteen, which set a record for the F-35 program. The previous record was seventeen flights on 8 August. Of the nineteen flights, five were CTOL and seven were STOVL.

UltimateRatioReg nails General Dempsey.

UltimateRatioReg nails General Dempsey!

Its a great read and I recommend you head over to USNI Blog to check it out. 

This is AWESOME. 

Only a few writers are able to give voice to the majority of military people...Black5, UltimateRatioReg, CDR Salamander and a few other spots (a very few) still have their heads on right.  But the pushback is coming and I can't wait to read the comments that are coming.

Know your enemy. ZBD09 Wheeled Infantry Fighting Vehicle.

The ZBD09.

It appears to be a Mowag Piranha copy.

But that isn't what should be of concern to Western military planner or thinkers.  While it almost certainly doesn't have the same armored protection and is probably a rough copy of a Western design, what should concern all is how fast the Chinese are able to get new vehicles into the hands of their military. What should concern the USMC is that the Chinese already have a wheeled personnel carrier that meets (at least on paper) the exact specifications laid out for its MPC without the drama thats part of our procurement process.

JSOW C-1 integrated. Navy moves to solve the anti-ship issue.

via Raytheon.

 -- The U.S. Navy has begun integrated testing (IT) of Raytheon Company's (NYSE: RTN) Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) C-1. During its first flight in IT, the JSOW C-1 was retargeted to strike a large moving ship target.

"This flight test further demonstrates that JSOW C-1 can receive third party target updates in-flight, retarget after release, and strike a precise point on a moving ship using the weapon's autonomous terminal seeker," said Cmdr. Samuel Hanaki of the U.S. Navy's Precision Strike Weapons Program Office. "The program remains on track for reaching initial operational capability in 2013."

The test presented two maneuvering ships (large and small) as potential targets. Before weapon release, a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet targeted the smaller ship, and then handed off weapon control to a second Super Hornet also targeting the smaller ship. After release from the first Super Hornet, the JSOW C-1 was guided by the second Super Hornet toward the smaller maneuvering ship target located 90 kilometers from launch point. 
While in flight, the JSOW was retargeted by the second Super Hornet to the larger maneuvering ship target. The JSOW provided weapon in-flight track and bomb hit indication status messages back to the controlling Super Hornet while successfully engaging the larger target ship. The test validated JSOW C-1's unique ability to be controlled, updated and retargeted as needed to eliminate its intended target. 
"JSOW C-1 brings U.S. and allied warfighters the unique ability to engage moving ships as far as 100 kilometers away with an air-launched precision strike weapon," said Celeste Mohr, Raytheon Missile Systems' JSOW program director. "The 280 Raytheon employees in Tucson, Ariz., and the hundreds of partner-supplier employees across the U.S. worked hard to make this test a success and demonstrate JSOW C-1's ability as the newest and pre-eminent moving maritime target weapon

You can bet your last dollar that when they talk about getting info from a third party they're talking about using this with P-8's.  I wonder if we're about to see a type of control ship operating with UAVs off a carrier.  Maybe a P-8 or C-2 stripped down as comm platforms having this as their sole mission.

The US Army in Air-Sea Battle. How will they get in the game?

The Army Chief looks at the Chairman and feels his blood pressure rising. He counts to ten before he speaks.  He wanted this to come out in a calm and measured way.  He failed.  This is fuckinig bullshit.  I've got 500,000 soldiers ready to go to war and you're telling me you don't need them.  FUCK YOU!  Fuck you all!

The Marine Commandant worked hard to conceal his smile.  This shit is fun!  Luckily he was able to contain his laughter and replied, well calm down John, which units are you gonna send?  Your Strykers aren't integrated with our amphibs and the MPS ships will take to long to get to theater.  You're gonna send your air assault units?  I thought we all agreed that we wouldn't be doing any more dog and pony shows...so no, we're not going to empty an aircraft carrier to carry your helos to the Pacific...besides, after that Haiti nonsense it took weeks for you all to get them back together after the saltwater worked its magic on them.

That only leaves your airborne forces and they're not mechanized.  They'll be foot mobile and that means they won't be able to pursue and destroy the enemy.  I'm afraid your boys are sitting this one out.  The Army Chief knew this was coming, his own staff had informed him of the issues.

He still had one card to play.  Time to get some allied help...Ok, Allen tell me this war plan again.  Allen was the new Air Force Chief of Staff.  They played golf and lifted weights together.  If he was going to get on board it was by the help of his long time friend.  Wow.  I really hate to tell ya but this plan is solid.  It just doesn't have any Army involvement this time out.  We've got a mix of Communist, Insurgents and Terrorist operating on the Philippine Island chain and between our fighters and UAVs out of Clark along with a Carrier Battle Group and Expeditionary Strike Group, we pretty much have this covered.  We'll be using our C-17's to ferry in high priority people and materials but we'll be landing the Marines on the southern most island and between Air Force, Navy and Marine Air they'll be covered the whole way.  Our UAVs will provide intel and you know SOCOM is already trying to get the lead on this so we have more than enough grunts running around.

The Army Chief was feeling a migraine coming on.  Those fucking cowboys in SOCOM always wanted to get camera time.  They more than had their hands full with the cluster that is Afghanistan but the news media had moved on so they were wanting out.  Still he saw an opening.

How long are operations set to continue?  The Navy Chief finally spoke up.  We're looking at a time scale of 15 days once the first Marines hits feet dry.  We've been told that under no circumstances will the mission go longer.  OK, now the Army Chief was in full migraine mode and the gloves were coming off.  So why can't my paratroopers drop in on these little fuckers and you can send your Marines back out to patrol the waters again?  The Commandant was really starting to like this new Army Chief.  He picked the wrong service but he was feisty!  He could feel the Army Chiefs pain so he wouldn't insult him with platitudes.  Its because little groups of paratroops spread all over the jungle is a recipe for disaster.  Even if we landed them at Clark and helo'ed them in they'd still be foot mobile and we're looking at pursuing them across several islands.  I'll tell ya what they can do.  Remember Panama when we had a company of Marines involved in what was an army effort?  Give us a Battalion of paratroopers for force protection at Clark...my FAST Company will take care of Subic Bay and you can tell the media that Army units are in the fight.

Damn it!  The Army Chief wondered how his predecessors could set the Army up for failure with their planning.  They refused to get light enough to fight and wouldn't get their light infantry and paratroopers the kind of vehicles necessary to fight in the Pacific.

More to come.

Oh and in this particular scenario the Army was left out completely.  Air Force Security forces pitched a bitch and would be providing force protection for Clark.  SOCOM's Army units got involved but they no longer considered themselves Army.

NOTE:
Air Sea Battle has to encompass more than just dealing with area denial threats.  It has to embrace an entirely new way of fighting wars in the future.  This is one of the ways that I see it playing out.

Red dots or laser?

Laserlyte

RMR

I am still chewing on this optic versus laser on pistols.

Ya see only a few years ago the combo was a laser and light...now you're seeing people trying to sell optics on pistols.  I still see no advantage and no reason to put red dot sights on pistols.  If you're engaging targets at distance then you should be grabbing your carbine or rifle.  If you're up close then you're going to be able to engage targets faster with a laser equipped pistol.  If your pistol is your primary, then you should save your pennies and buy a rifle.

But even worse is the potential damage that you do to your pistol.  In order to attach red dots to it you have to mill out the slide, attach suppressor sights and then you have to relearn using your pistol with the new setup.

Yeah.  Its gotta be the new money grab in the firearms industry.

US and Spanish Marines practice Helo Ops.

Tactical Air Control Party. Death on call...

TACP.  Death on call and having fun doing it.