31stMEU-Harriers conduct night landings while at sea

HMS Ark Royal to be sold for scrap.

via the Telegraph.

HMS Ark Royal, once the bullish symbol of Britain’s defence diplomacy, will follow the ignominious fate of her sister ship HMS Invincible by ending life as a razor blades.

There had been strong indications that she would sold to a British diving company and sunk off the Devon coast to become a major scuba diving attraction.

An estimated bid of £6.5 million was submitted to purchase the ship that as a diving reef could have contributed up to £30 million to the local economy

Wow.

Just fucking wow.

Read the entire article but the other options were for the ship to be turned into a casino in China, a museum, a London heliport or a NIGHT CLUB!

31stMEU Harriers join 31st MEU at sea

Think Defence on the containerized missile threat.

"Our systems are programmed to recognise the distinctive shapes and signatures.

Put them inside the ubiqutous ISO container however, and things get complicated.

In a crowded, complex, congested and contested area of operations how would we first identify one of these?"

--Think Defence on the threat posed by containerized missiles.

Read his whole post here.  Note.  He was onto this threat before I was.

XC-142A Operational Suitability Testing (1965)

Too good to keep to myself.  Quite honestly I've been trying to figure out how to download this vid of the XC-142A undergoing Operational Suitability Testing.  I still can't get it and I've tried Download Helper, a couple of script keys and other add-ons.  The Texas Archive of Moving Image and Vought Aircraft Heritage Foundation are my new heroes.  Check it out here.

 

Photos are from the San Diego Air and Space Museum FLICKR page.

Newsreel. Vietnam heats up & XC-142A

Could the EC725 Caracal's Weapon System work on the MV-22?

Make note of how they've attached the weapon systems to the fueslage.  With them being that close in and with chutes to direct spent brass away from the rotors underneath the airplane this might work.  Add to it a smaller rocket launcher and the addition of guided rockets and you have a real assault craft.

Maybe.  Maybe it could work.

Thank God the Brits are so into music and soccer.

Thank God the Brits are focusing on their brand of music and soccer.  If they paid attention to what was going on in Afghanistan we'd be facing a serious diplomatic incident and we'd probably have to fight to keep a couple of our pilots from being charged in their courts.

Don't get me wrong.  I realize that mistakes happen but check out a few passages from the BBC and their reporting on the Coroners Inquest...

The Apaches were eventually called off and waited in the area while other helicopters were summoned to evacuate casualties.
The pilot of Luger 61 said in his statement how he noted the men on the ground were wearing vests and what appeared to be body armour.
L/Cpl Roney, from Sunderland could not survive his injuries and died the next day.

+

Earlier, the inquest heard how British officer Capt Christopher Dadd shouted "stop, stop, stop" when he realised the helicopters were mistakenly attacking the base.

Capt Dadd was in the operations room when he realised what was happening, the inquest was told.
Warrant Officer John Pepper said operations room staff realised the error and tried to halt the attack.
He was in the operations room on the ground some distance away from the base handling information coming in from members of the battlegroup.
WO Pepper said he was watching on a screen as the helicopters made one of three strafing runs when his superior, Capt Dadd, became aware of what was happening.
Carried on firingWO Pepper told the inquest: "Capt Dadd shouted 'Stop, stop, stop'. That was when everyone realised in the ops room they were attacking Patrol Base Almas.
"He had his head in his hands."
L/Cpl Johnny Cassell told the hearing the leader of the platoon at the patrol base, Capt Palmer Winstanley, appeared to be weeping when he contacted the Ops room to tell them to call off the helicopters.
Cpl Ben Hall, one of the troops who came under fire from the US crew, said his men carried on firing on the enemy, despite the onslaught from above.
Once the Apaches were called off an air strike was called in on the enemy position and a 500lb bomb brought a halt to the Taliban attack

Yeah.

The pilot noted how the men on the ground were wearing vest and what appeared to be body armor.

Yeah.

The battle appears to have been raging from compound to compound (meaning that the Brits were in one compound and the Taliban in another).

Yeah.

This sounds like fangs were out and they wanted blood.  I would love to hear the conversation between the FAC and the pilots.

Yeah.

I'm absolutely positive that Captain Dadd will never get another unmedicated full nights sleep.

Yeah.

I'm glad the British people aren't paying attention.