Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Lexington Institute Swings and Misses.


This is their latest...I've highlighted all the inside the beltway bullshit that they use to describe this insanity...

Franco-British Pact Provides Foundation For New Security Architecture


On the heels of its recently released defense review, the new British government has moved aggressively to restructure its strategic relationships both with Washington and its allies in Europe. As part of a new agreement on defense cooperation, Great Britain and France will substantially deepen their already extensive security collaboration.
For example, Britain and France will cooperate in one of the most significant areas of national security and sovereignty: testing the safety and reliability of nuclear warheads. The two countries are likely to develop arrangements for sharing the use of the new aircraft carriers now under construction. London and Paris have announced their attention to develop a joint rapid deployment force. According to the Financial Times, defense contractors in Britain and France want this week’s summit between David Cameron, the UK prime minister, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, to boost bilateral industrial collaboration to help create a new generation of unmanned surveillance and combat aircraft programs.
The Cameron government strongly asserts that its efforts to draw closer to France do not constitute a rejection of the so-called special relationship with the U.S. Rather, it is a way for the U.K. to retain sufficient military relevance so as to be worthy of the special relationship. The ability to leverage French military capabilities and defense industrial resources will help to ensure that the U.K. remains Washington’s most capable ally.
The outstanding question is how the United States will respond to the U.K.-French initiative. The security relationship between France and the United States has a long and some might say checkered history. Paris’s recent decision to re-enter NATO’s integrated command structure and to deploy a significant combat force to Afghanistan have gone a long way to healing the decades-old breach with Washington. But the integration of French and military forces now gives the former a degree of control over the actions of the latter that are likely to give Washington pause in how it treats its closest ally.
Washington should consider the possibility that the Franco-British defense relationship could serve as the basis for a new strategic architecture for the defense of NATO and as a model for building partner capacity in other regions of interest. The sharing of military capabilities, the provision for mutual support and the integration of defense industrial capabilities are all examples of ways in which regional partners and allies can create a robust defensive capability greater than the mere sum of the parts.
The Obama Administration needs to consider ways by which it can leverage the growing interest of major regional allies and partners to cooperate more closely. Collaboration with France and the U.K. in nuclear weapons safety and surety is one potential area of interest. Another is in development of the next generations of tactical fighters and unmanned aerial vehicles. A third could be lift and logistics to support expeditionary operations. Both France and the U.K. have expressed interest in developing a European-wide missile defense capability, something to which the United States can contribute. By leveraging the Franco-British entente, the United States can not only maintain the special relationship with London and deepen its defense ties with France but create a model for empowering security partners in the Middle East and East Asia.
Daniel Goure, Ph.D.

What a load of trash.  Lexington Institute is better than this trash.

E-2D --- Defense begins with Detection!

What if....


The USMC is rock solid behind the F-35B...even more now that we have an aviation Commandant.  The US Navy is luke warm to the F-35C.  What will the UK do if the US Navy drops the F-35C, the USMC continues with the F-35B and other allies suspected of going with the F-35B continue.

The way I see it, thats a valid option...so what will the UK's options then be???
1.  Become the only buyer of the F-35C...
2.  Revamp the Typhoon into a carrier model...
3.  Buy Rafales...(in light of their recent decisions this is the more probable outcome)....
4.  Buy Gripens....

Interesting.  Think Defence and SNAFU! are working on a collaboration.  Keep an eye on his blog for news on the latest from across the Atlantic.

Monday, November 01, 2010

When are we going to be finished with Haiti???


I mean no disrespect, but when are we going to be finished with this modern day meals on ships program?  Say this out loud and see if it makes sense...

The US Navy is sending the USS Iwo Jima to Haiti in preparation for a Hurricane.

Wasn't US military involvement in that island nation suppose to be over with back in March?  If this is the new face of US military power then we need to get a drastic nip and tuck.  But notice something even more insidious.  NGO's are becoming an integral part of ships company now.  This is the ships roster...

A crew of 1,600 military and civilian medical, engineering, aviation, logistical and other support personnel are embarked aboard Iwo Jima, including U.S. Navy engineers, a contingent of 500 Marines with logistical-support expertise, volunteers from the U.S. Public Health Service and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as medical, dental and engineering professionals from Europe, North America and South America.
Read about it here....

Europe's Carrier Force is Kaput!


The Telegraph reports...

As President Nicolas Sarkozy prepares to use a historic London summit to announce the use of RAF jets off the Charles de Gaulle, his naval chiefs have told him she is no longer seaworthy.
"She's meant to be heading to Afghanistan to support the war there but is instead in home port with a faulty propulsion system," said a French Navy source. 

I wonder if they still think a mutual defense treaty (the UK) with France is still a great idea.  I continue to be perplexed by our friends across the Atlantic.

How silly can you be????


This story from DefenseNews has my blood boiling!

If you want interoperability with a host of allies then you need the F-35B!  His Harriers were operating off US Navy LHDs not US Navy carriers!  But this is the passage that has me steamed....
What's more, the U.K. vice defense chief told reporters in Washington before a speech that officials also determined the nation would need the greater "range and payload" planned for the carrier variant.
He also said U.K. defense officials also decided that since key allies like France were slated to buy the carrier variant, following suit would make sense to foster interoperability. To this end, the nation's recently completed strategic defense review states the British military will carry out most future missions and tasks "with alliances and coalitions," Houghton said during his speech.
What a piker!

But we really have to ask ourselves one question.  How serious were the British from the start when it comes to buying the F-35B?  They were after a lost capability...the full deck carrier!  Once that was guaranteed were they really interested in the B model at all?  It would be akin to having B models operating off Nimitz class carriers...doable but not particularly effective.  Then you add in the rolling landing nonsense and I wonder if we should have seen this one coming.

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice?????  You won't again UK.

Don't Hate...Appreciate!



Sunday, October 31, 2010