Looks like the assault phase of Bold Alligator has begun...

Amphibious assault vehicles from the USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) make their way toward the shore during an amphibious assault exercise as part of Bold Alligator 2012. Exercise Bold Alligator 2012, the largest naval amphibious exercise in the past 10 years, represents the Navy and Marine Corps' revitalization of the full range of amphibious operations. The exercise focuses on today's fight with today's forces, while showcasing the advantages of seabasing. This exercise will take place Jan. 30 - Feb. 12, 2012 afloat and ashore in and around Virginia and North Carolina. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Gregory N. Juday)

Amphibious assault vehicles from the USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) make their way toward the shore during an amphibious assault exercise as part of Bold Alligator 2012. Exercise Bold Alligator 2012, the largest naval amphibious exercise in the past 10 years, represents the Navy and Marine Corps' revitalization of the full range of amphibious operations. The exercise focuses on today's fight with today's forces, while showcasing the advantages of seabasing. This exercise will take place Jan. 30 - Feb. 12, 2012 afloat and ashore in and around Virginia and North Carolina. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Gregory N. Juday)

A landing craft air cushioned from USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) comes ashore during and amphibious assault exercise as part of Bold Alligator 2012. Exercise Bold Alligator 2012, the largest naval amphibious exercise in the past 10 years, represents the Navy and Marine Corps' revitalization of the full range of amphibious operations. The exercise focuses on today's fight with today's forces, while showcasing the advantages of seabasing. This exercise will take place Jan. 30 - Feb. 12, 2012 afloat and ashore in and around Virginia and North Carolina. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Gregory N. Juday

Dutch Marines drop in on Bold Alligator.

A Royal Dutch Marine with the 32nd Infantry Company runs out from underneath a U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion from Heavy Marine Helicopter Squadron 461 after fast-roping aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C., Feb. 4. The bilateral training allows coalition partners to increase interoperability for seabased operations as a part of Exercise Bold Alligator 2012. This exercise, the largest naval amphibious exercise in the past 10 years, represents the Navy and Marine Corps', revitalization of the full range of amphibious operations.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Jessica DeRose)

F-35B fly-by...

F-35B test aircraft BF-2 flies by the tower at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., in short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) mode during a test flight Jan. 31, 2012.

I go outside the wire...Big Army can kiss my ass....

I imagine the CAPT photographed here says ....I go outside the wire...Big Army can kiss my ass... now lets test your knowledge.  What "rule" or "uniform code" (not sure exactly how the Army lists this)  is the good CAPT breaking.

Capt. Joe Pazcoguin, commander of Company B, 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, talks with 1st Lt. Austin Cattle of Company B and 1st Lt. Mitchell Creel of the 530th Engineer Company during a clearance operation in western Kandahar City, Feb. 1.

F-35 back in the air.

Long story short.  The F-35's got there parachutes fixed.  Awesome, now knock out those test points.

AF-1, a F-35 Lightning II, resumed flying Friday, Feb. 3, at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., after the Integrated Test Force Team there received and installed the first properly packed parachute head box assembly for its ejection seat from the Martin Baker Aircraft Corporation. The F-35 head box assembly was installed in AF-1 early Friday morning and the aircraft flew later that day. Three more head box assemblies containing properly packed parachutes are expected to be received and installed during the weekend allowing additional aircraft to return to flight at Edwards early next week. More head boxes should be received in the coming days for installation in the remaining jets at Edwards, nine jets at Eglin AFB, Fla., and jets in assembly at the F-35 production plant at Ft. Worth, Texas.
Friday’s flight at Edwards was the first since 26 January when high speed ground and flight operations were temporarily suspended at Edwards AFB, Calif., Eglin AFB, Fla. and Lockheed Martin’s F-35 production facility in Fort Worth, Texas after discovering improperly packed parachutes in affected production and test aircraft. The apparent cause was due to improperly drafted packing procedures in the -21 and -23 ejection seats. The parachutes packed in the head boxes of these seats were reversed 180 degrees from design during installation. Although the improperly packed parachutes would have still deployed as designed to provide a safe landing, it would have made it more difficult for the pilot to steer the canopy during the parachute descent. The temporary suspension of flight test did not apply to the 8 F-35 test aircraft at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., which have an earlier version of the ejection seat with the properly packed parachutes head box assembly.

HMLA-167 refuels on the USS San Antonio

By Lance Cpl. Kyle Runnels  , Marine Corps Air Station New River 

USS SAN ANTONIO, At Sea  — 

A UH-1Y Huey from Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 167 conducts a refueling mission aboard the landing dock platform USS San Antonio during Exercise Bold Alligator 2012, Feb. 2. This exercise, the largest naval amphibious exercise in the past 10 years, represents the Navy and Marine Corps’ revitalization of the full range of amphibious operations. Bold Alligator is scheduled to run through Feb. 12 afloat and ashore in and around Virginia and North Carolina. 

 

Acts of Valor. Another page in the playbook

I finally took the time to actually watch the preview of the movie Acts of Valor.

Impressive.

A must see.

The enemy must be saying that too.

Check out this review by Brandon Webb (Author of KitUp! and former Navy SEAL)

I mentioned last week that I was invited up to LA to see a private screening of Act of Valor and had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.  What I can say, is that this is the most technically and tactically accurate Special Operations movie ever made in my opinion. Enough said.

Maybe it has to do with the 50th Anniversary of the Navy SEALs, but I am becoming a bit alarmed.  As I said in a previous post these quiet professionals aren't so quiet anymore.

I know Rangers are running ops and I'm not hearing about it.  Same with Special Forces, 160th Night Stalkers, Marine Special Operations and Air Force Special Ops.

But the problem is that these guys (SOCOM) all operate from the same playbook.  They have unique specializations, but have generally become raiders.  And yes I'm repeating myself but between the publicized raid on Bin Laden, the hostage rescue in Africa and even before that the rescue of the ships captain off the coast of Africa, I can put together a pretty good defense plan for anything less than a company sized assault....and thats based off publicly available information on actual operations.

After this movie runs its course lets hope that the quiet professionals get quiet again.

2nd Tanks to play in Bold Alligator.

Some thoughts....


* I hope this doesn't kill 2nd Tanks budget. A little birdy told me that they have jack squat for funding this year.
* The exercise itself is impressive but the assembly of ships is too. This has got to be one of the biggest fleet exercises since the end of the Cold War.
* Still waiting to see the Royal Marines make an appearance. I know they have an exercise going on near Norway right now but I really hoped to see a company show up (if I'm wrong let me know).
*Also, I'm trying to find out the numbers of Canadian troops assigned to this exercise. The list of nations participating is for all to see...the number of troops (even our Marines) is alot harder to come by.
* Where is the Army in all this? We're talking about sea base and this is suppose to be a joint force thing. I'd like to see more than a few helos flying out to ships. It shouldn't have been hard to get a Stryker Brigade to self deploy to the coast for a force on force opportunity.

LCAC vs. L-Cat. Capabilities comparison.

L-CAT


LCAC


I'm not a buyer or seller on the L-CAT concept.  Color me...curious.  But after the photo published by Combat Camera yesterday I became more convinced that it isn't the end all be all solution improving landing craft.

My biggest issue is this factoid from CNIM.

"Landing to beaches with up to a 2% gradient"

That my friends works in a European, African or Middle Eastern scenario but will NOT work in the Pacific.  Additionally experience has shown that coral reefs can upset the best laid landing plans.

If you notice the promotional videos put out by CNIM, you'll also see that the L-CAT is more often than not loading cargo from a prepared port facility.

That's just not real life.

As the disasters in Haiti and Japan showed, port facilities are remarkably vulnerable to natural disasters.  The ability to get cargo ashore...and do it feet dry is a capability not to be overlooked.

Also to be considered is the fact that Japan, S. Korea and China have all chosen to go with LCAC type landing craft...the Australians chose to go with a legacy type LCM (high speed though) and it appears to me that the L-CAT is an evolutionary dead end and a one off example of solving the ship to shore problem.

NOTE*
What I would love to see but haven't yet is compatibility testing.  We've seen the LCAC go in and out of Mistral Class BPC's forever now...what we haven't seen is the L-CAT do the same with US amphibious ships.  Now that WOULD be interesting!

L-CAT Characteristics via Wikipedia

Name: Engin de débarquement amphibie rapide

Operator: French Navy

Builder: Socarenam

Completed: 2011

Acquired: 8

In service: 0

General characteristics

Class and type: Roll-on/roll-off catamaran landing craft

Tonnage: tons (light)

Length: 30 metres (98 feet 43 inches)

Beam: 12.8 metres (42 feet)

Draft: 2.5 metres (8 feet 2 inches, fully loaded)

0.6 metres (2 feet, empty)

Installed power: Four MTU Friedrichshafen 12V2000 M92 Diesel engines each producing 300 kW

Propulsion: Four Wärtsilä Pump-jets

Speed: 20 kts (economical)

30 kts (warranted)

Range: 1,000 NM @ 15 kts (laden)

Capacity:

Troop capacity:

Cargo capacity:

1 Cavalry Platoon including 3 Véhicule Blindé Léger and 3 AMX-10 RC or

1 Reinforced Infantry Platoon including 6 Véhicule de l'Avant Blindé or

1 Field Engineering Platoon or

1 First-Aid Post.

LCAC Characteristics via Wikipedia

Place of origin United States

Service history

In service 1986–present

Production history

Manufacturer Textron Marine and Land Systems/Avondale Gulfport Marine

Specifications

Length 87 feet 11 inches (26.4 meters)

Width 47 feet (14.3 meters)

Main

armament two 12.7 mm machine guns. Gun mounts will support: M2HB .50 cal machine gun; Mk 19 Mod 3 40 mm grenade launcher; M60 machine gun. Tests conducted with GAU-13 30mm gatling gun.[1]

Engine gas turbine

Payload capacity 60 tons/75 ton overload (54/68 metric tons)

Operational

range 200 miles at 40 kt (370 km at 75 km/h) with payload

300 miles at 35 kt (550 km at 65 km/h)with payload

Speed 40+ knots (46+ mph; 74 km/h) with full load, 70+ knots maximum speed

2nd AAV Battalion splashes in support of Bold Alligator.

French display their new landing craft at Bold Alligator.

A French landing craft unit practices a beach landing at Onslow Beach at Camp Lejeune, N.C., as part of Bold Alligator 2012. Exercise Bold Alligator 2012, the largest naval amphibious exercise in the past 10 years, represents the Navy and Marine Corps' revitalization of the full range of amphibious operations. The exercise focuses on today's fight with today's forces, while showcasing the advantages of seabasing. This exercise will take place Jan. 30 - Feb. 12, 2012 afloat and ashore in and around Virginia and North Carolina. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Gregory N. Juday)

I told you in a post earlier that the French and Australians (as well as our own Navy/Marine Corps...in particular the beginings of the sea base) were worth watching this week.

Well it looks like we're starting to see some of things that I was talking about.  If I'm not mistaken the above photo shows the L-cat.  I wondered how the new French landing craft would perform and it seems like we're going to get a good look at it during Bold Alligator.

More to come.

Best Sci-Fi book for Marines...

The Legacy and Inheritance trilogies by Ian Douglas are hard to beat when you're talking about the best Sci-Fi in general and in particular for Marines.

The author Ian Douglas is a former Navy Corpsman and its obvious from his writing that he spent almost his entire time with the green side...

Most sci-fi writers attempt to recreate a new universe, villains etc...Ian does that but what will appeal to the readers is his sticking with units that are familiar to all Marines.  MEU's?  Oh he does that but on an enter galactic level.  Rules of Engagement?  He talks about that issue but in regards to first contact with alien species.

Its a thrill ride and I don't think you'll be disappointed.  Check it out for yourself on Amazon here.