Crazy like a fox.

Just a note on the Republican Convention and the firestorm over Clint Eastwood's speech.

If I didn't know better I would think that he purposefully set the whole thing up.  I mean I've heard some pretty wild stuff from both sides of the political isle this year and I thought that Clint was funny rather than offensive.  But even better is the fact that Clint has a movie coming out Sept 1st.  Yeah, if Clint knew that a few jokes were going to start this firestorm and have his name all over the place.  If he knew that the media would react the way that they did...then ole' Clint is crazy like a fox.

Indonesian Trimaran Stealth Missile Boat at Sea.

Awesome pics!  Thanks DWI!

RAF Merlin Helicopters on Exercise Pashtung Vortex

Augusta Westland in India.

Augusta Westland had penetrated the Indian helicopter market place and sold a couple of AW101's for VIP transport there according to the LIVEFIST Blog.

And just imagine.  We could have had the same helicopters in operation by now for our VIP transport with HMX-1.

The US Army's Air Defense Force (formerly Air Defense Artillery) is how they get into Air-Sea Battle.

The US Army has a problem.  Its on the outside looking in when it comes to Air-Sea Battle.  Some journalist have tried to paint the Marine Corps with the same brush as the Army...that we're a land force, but that's to be short sighted, naive and foolish.  Traditionally the Marine Corps has been part of the Navy and quite honestly it always will be.

The Army needs a dog in the fight and the way in is with its Air Defense Force...I like that name better than Air Defense Artillery because it better covers the functions that it will perform if the concept is followed to its logical conclusion.

The video above gives the best example of how Air Sea Battle is suppose to work when confronted with a missile raid.  But whether its a missile raid, air raid or even a ballistic missile launched at an aircraft carrier or amphib, the Army can play a role if its willing to garrison a few islands with our allies...fully fund the ground based interceptor...and integrate the Patriot missile system into the network.  Goure over at the Lexington Institute covered it well.  A tidbit.

The Army could turn theater air and missile defense into a major future franchise. This means getting rid of the idea that air and missile defenses are a supporting capability for an Army that wants to focus on combined arms maneuver. As ballistic missiles, advanced fighters and long-range precision weapons proliferate, air and missile defense may be one of the most important military missions in the 21st century. To defend valuable territory and people at risk requires being there, forward deployed. In the Asia-Pacific region, air and missile defense could be the shield behind which U.S offensive power, resident largely in the Navy and Air Force, will organize and prepare to deliver a crushing counterattack.

I contend that between participating in Air Sea Battle with their Air Defense Force and taking a leading role in Cyber Warfare, the Army will have a major role to play in any conflict in the Pacific.  Additionally by de-mechanizing and establishing a few pure Light Infantry Divisions, then they'll also have forces that can deploy quickly by air to assist in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief missions.  Think back to Haiti.  The one thing that was needed besides food, water and medical assistance was man power.

The Army has its script.  I wonder if they have the leader to read it to the force.

What If? A new/redesigned CH-46...

Another great pic by Joe Copalman

Let me hit you with a what if.

What if the USMC did a complete redesign/upgrade of the CH-46 instead of buying the MV-22?  They would all be new build helicopters but would start off with all the strong points of the Sea Knight.

What would we want?

*Composite blades...maybe something from the Brits and their Lynx helicopter (the fast one that broke records)
*A composite body...using processes developed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin
*Massive engines...perhaps the same ones used on the CH-53K or the MV-22.
*Enlarged sponsons to hold more fuel
*Enlarged cabin both in depth and width
*Quad landing gear for increased stability on ships.

Maybe I'm talking about a scaled up CH-46 or a scaled down CH-47 but if we only got these few upgrades what would we have now?  We'd have a helicopter that would probably be fully deployed and produced, lower life cycle costs, less expensive, more robust, faster than the legacy helicopter (but not as fast as the MV-22), longer ranged than the legacy helicopter (ditto) and it wouldn't be eating up the budget leaving the ground side with crumbs.

Marine Corps Public Affairs better get a handle on the training with civilian law enforcement.

The training scenarios with US Marines working with civilian law enforcement is a bad idea. News stories like this don't help....via WNCT.com.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - Training at Camp Lejeune Thursday looked and felt real -- and that was the point. Law officers and marines from across the country ended their training with a bang.
Thursday was the final day of exercises for law enforcement and marines who have gone through special reaction team training at Camp Lejeune for the past three weeks. In the final exercise, teams were presented with a series of real life scenarios as well as hands on instruction to handle them correctly.
Brian Dye, Operations Chief of I&I in Lexington, Kentucky says training civilians as a blended force with Marine Corps personnel eases the transition into a real world scenario.

"I think it's always good when you get an opportunity to work on some similar tactics and procedures so that everybody's kind of operating on the same page. That way when you bring teams together from active duty and the  civilian side, it makes the integration a whole lot smoother."

The tactics trainees take away from this course just may help save lives.  This three week SRT training course is phase one for law enforcement and Marine Corps personnel. Phase two will focus on sniper and designated marksmanship training.

I don't know if these are Infantrymen or Military Police but someone at the Public Affairs Office needs to get out ahead of this stuff.

The internet is blowing up about this and its sparking some pretty infammatory comments. I'm not saying that anything evil is going on here.  But it needs to be explained before some loons start taking aim at Marines because they think they're coming to "declare martial law"...sounds over the top?  Read some websites.

The Marine Corps NEEDS to get ahead of the curve and explain this!


NOTE:  Here is an example of what I'm talking about.  The internet is aflame with this.

Japan no longer buying KAAVs. BAE just caught a break.

If I'm reading this right.

And Google translation leaves alot to be desired.

Then BAE is going to get a chance to sell AAV's to Japan after the push by the Japanes to buy Korean KAAV's fell through.  Here is the link to the original story...and here's a summary of the situation by a Korea watcher.

Citing a Korean government official, the Hankyoreh reports that Japan apparently abandoned an effort to import the Korea Amphibious Assault Vehicle (KAAV) after President Lee visited Dokdo.
Instead, Japan is now considering purchasing American AAV7s.
According to the official, earlier this year Japan was really interested in importing the KAAV as part of Tokyo’s efforts to deal with the Chinese threat against the Senkaku Islands.
The Japanese felt the KAAV, used by the Korean Marine Corps, was the best fit after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the US was suspending development of the EFV.
This was back in those heady days of June, when it looked like Korea and Japan were set to form what critics feared looked a lot like a military alliance. Japan, too, had announced last year it would export weapons to Korea and Australia, and Tokyo figured importing a Korean weapons system first would make later Korean imports of Japanese weapons smoother. Buying and selling weapons would help move the relationship towards a semi-alliance, too.
Then everything pretty much went to shit in July. The military intelligence deal blew up in Lee Myung-bak’s face, one of Lee’s top security advisors was forced to resign, and then President Lee visited Dokdo.
The Korean government had believed the Japanese were still interested in buying the KAAV, and on Aug 27, NHK reported that the JSDF was putting together 3 billion yen to buy four amphibious assault vehicles. Unfortunately, NHK reported the vehicle under consideration was the American AAV7 now used by USFJ.

The Japanese are a high tech force and I seriously doubt that they'd be satisfied with used or refurbished Marine Corps AAVs.  Besides, all of our vehicles have been ridden hard---real hard.  Even a rebuild will probably be so extensive that a new built vehicle would be cheaper.

BAE just got the foot in the door that they needed to when the AAV upgrade and possibly the ACV contests.