Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Wheels vs Tracks. HELLO!!!! Everything gets stuck in the mud!








I've been monitoring a conversation on the blog regarding the mobility of tracks vs. wheels.  It's been a fun watch but I think everyone is missing the point.

EVERYTHING GETS STUCK!

Wheels, tracks...it just doesn't matter!

Route recon, attack approach, driver training, standard combat load, weather conditions....all that and much more has as much to do with whether a vehicle is gonna get stuck as does the question of whether its tracked or wheeled.

Additionally if you're gonna hang your hat on ground pressure then be advised that modern wheeled vehicles can air down to put more surface tread on the deck to increase mobility....Long story short?  Argue all you want but wheeled 8x8 APC/IFV are here to stay.

In the Marine Corps the MTVR has been shown to be an off road all star and to have the mobility to keep up with M1 Abrams off road.

So while the argument is fun to have its no longer applicable.  The tech has changed.  Wheels that are setup properly can do what tracks can

Raytheon’s Long-Range Precision Fires

Thanks to Anthony for the link!


Hmmm.  Can we mount the M270 pod onb our 7-tons?  This system could help ground forces when US air power is fighting for survival or grounded for whatever reason.  Between guns, missiles and attack helicopters we might have fire support covered....if we can get enough of them!

Breaking News! ATF Says You Can Shoulder Your Arm Brace (HD)

Open Comment Post. April 25, 2017


So the F-35 could cost another billion to develop?


via AOL Defense.
Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, head of the JPO, in GAO report terms, does not concur. “We do not agree with the GAO’s assessment that an additional billion dollars will be needed to complete SDD. The remaining cost to complete the F-35’s $55 billion development program is estimated to be $2.3 billion – money which was already budgeted for the program. If there is a delay to the completion of SDD, the Department has directed the JPO to maintain the resources necessary to continue SDD flight testing to May 2018,” Bogdan says in a statement. “Should it be necessary for flight testing to go beyond February 2018 to May 2018, the JPO will hold $100 million of Follow-on-Modernization (FoM) funding in fiscal year (FY) 2018 to pay for this added flight testing. Use of this internal funding will result in no impact to any other DoD programs or the Services/DoD’s budget requirements.”
The GAO also wants to delay the Block 4 software’s Request For Proposal “at least until developmental testing is complete and all associated capabilities have been verified to work as intended.”
Story here. 

Two points.

1.  Do these people have no shame?  They can do all the dog and pony show imaginable but if the plane doesn't work it doesn't work.  From the looks of things they won't even get the go to war soft ware together on schedule.  All the airshow performances and weak blue vs. red exercises can't change that fact.

2.  I'm intrigued by the highlighted portion.  Why would Bogdan state that this internal funding would not have an impact on other DoD programs or service budgets IF IT HADN'T AFFECTED THEM IN THE PAST!!!!

We need a complete audit of the DoD.  I'm a defense supporter but I have serious misgivings about how the taxpayers dollar is being spent.  Additionally I have issues with the way that these programs are being presented to the public.  For a gulf to be this large between what the GAO is saying and the Program Office is more than problematic.

To put it simply?

They both can't be right so someone is lying.

BMD-4 airborne combat vehicle....via Gunsm1th Tumblr Page








Monday, April 24, 2017

‘Heavenly Vessel” arrives at the “Heavenly palace” as Tianzhou-1 docks to Tiangong-2. (gifs)



75th Anniversary 2d AAV BN Heritage Film

Trump wants even lower price on F-35....


via Inside Defense
President Donald Trump told the Associated Press in a recent interview he will push for deeper price cuts to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.

During the interview, which AP published April 23, Trump claimed credit for the program's Lot 10 contract, which saw the F-35A unit cost drop about 7 percent to $94.6 million. As Inside Defense previously reported, the reduction was the result of an ongoing, affordability initiative that -- coupled with a doubling down on supplier costs -- is expected to drive the A-model jet's price down to $80 billion per copy by 2019.

“We went from a company that wanted more money for the planes to a company that cut,” Trump said. “And the reason they cut -- same planes, same everything -- was because of me. I mean, because that's what I do.”

Asked if those cuts would continue across future orders, he replied: “More. I'm gonna get more than that. This thing was out of control and now it's great.”
Fat chance!

No one is saying it but the increase in defense spending is in jeopardy.  That planned increase might run into a Dem/Republican Spending Hawk buzz saw.  We might be back to a train wreck situation.
 

French Griffon & Jaguar enter production

Thanks to Jonathan for the link!



via Defense Aerospace
In line with the development of the Jaguar and Griffon vehicles ordered in December 2014, the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) today awarded Nexter Systems, Renault Trucks Defense and Thales a contract for the first 319 Griffon and the first 20 Jaguar armored vehicles, as part of the Scorpion program for the renewal of the combat capabilities of the Army. This order also includes logistics and training support systems.

In accordance with Jean-Yves Le Drian's decision to modernize the armored component of the ground forces, the Military Programme Law provides for the delivery of the first Griffon in 2018 and of the first Jaguar in 2020. During the development phase, the workload of the Griffon-Jaguar projects supports nearly a thousand highly-skilled direct jobs. This will increase to more than 1,700 direct jobs during full production, starting in 2020.

Scorpion will renew the army’s first-line combat capabilities around two new armored vehicles, Griffon and Jaguar, and a unique information and communication system, SICS, which will allow the networking of all players in land combat. Scorpion also integrates the acquisition of light armored multi-role vehicles, the upgrade of the Leclerc tank and modern combat training systems using simulation and virtual reality.

Griffon is a multi-role armored vehicle (véhicule blindé multi-rôles, or VBMR) designed to replace the Véhicules de l’Avant Blindé (VAB). It is a 6x6 armored vehicle weighing approximately 25 tonnes and equipped with a remotely-controlled weapons station. It will be available in several versions (troop transport, command post, artillery spotter and medical evacuation).

Jaguar is a 6x6 armored reconnaissance and combat vehicle (engin blindé de reconnaissance et de combat, or EBRC) weighing about 25 tonnes intended to replace the AMX10RC and Sagaie wheeled light tanks as well as the VAB variant armed with HOT missiles (designated Mephisto—Ed.). It will be equipped with the 40mm automatic cannon with cased telescopic ammunition jointly developed by France and the UK, the MMP medium-range missile and a remotely-controlled weapon station.

In addition to Nexter Systems, Thales and Renault Trucks Defense, the program also involves Safran for optronics and, for the Jaguar’s weapons fit, CTA International for the 40mm gun and MBDA for the MMP medium range missile.
Nice....real nice....and they designed it, not bought it off the  shelf.


Assistant Squad Leader billet is now a thing....

via Inside Defense...
The Marine Corps will also add company-level operations centers (CLOC) and company-level intelligence centers (CLIC) to push capabilities down to lower echelons and "be able to operate more distributed, more dispersed in the future environment," according to Busby.
The squad, the smallest unit of organization, will also evolve with the addition of an "assistant to the squad leader," Busby said. The assistant will help the squad leader manage some new technologies the Marines want to use at the squad level, such as small quad-copters and computer tablets.
The idea was first tested out by 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment during the Marine Corps Air-Ground Task Force Integrated Experiment last August. The battalion has been named the Marine Corps "experimental unit" as part of the "Sea Dragon" experimentation portion of the Force 2025 effort and will deploy to Japan later this year using some non-traditional gear and concepts.
"That's an idea that starts to build upon a fifth generation squad in the future," Busby said of the assistant to the squad leader.
Behind a paywall but they're offering a free one month subscription...

Mixed feelings on this.  Have to  chew on it a bit...

General Conway vindicated over USMC IED countermeasure work...

via Free Beacon
Democrats in the Senate pounced on the story to attack then-President George W. Bush over Iraq. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, flanked by other Democratic leaders, went before news reporters the day the story came out waving the newspaper in front of cameras as proof the president was failing to take care of American troops in a war.
Much of the information for the story came from a Marine Corps scientist, Franz Gayl, who had been put in touch with the article's authors by Erin Logan, a staff member for then-senator Joe Biden (D., Del.).
Ten years later, documents and emails obtained by a former director of operations for the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab in Quantico present a contradictory picture. The documents and emails show the Democrat-driven public accounts accusing the Marines of failing to protect their troops by delaying requests for armored vehicles between February 2005 until September 2006 were false and misleading.
The facts presented by Steve Chill, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel who served in Iraq, reveal the Corps was already engaged in rapid development of needed armored vehicles for troops in Iraq.
But instead of buying off-the-shelf armored vehicles, the Marines instead chose an MRAP made from blast-hardened M1114 vehicles, known as up-armored Humvees.
The armored Humvee development program was already the highest priority for then-Marine Corps commandant Gen. James T. Conway, nearly a year before Gayl went public with his charges to Biden and the press.
Story here.

Maybe we've always had a 5th column in the Marine Corps but this scientist and the USNI Blog are something special....General Conway was working the problem but it got sensationalized instead...