Pentagon lost the budget war. Sequestration to continue...

via National Defense.

Has the Pentagon done enough to convince Congress to bust the spending limits it set in law?
Apparently not, as the Senate and House Budget Committees are expected to pass spending plans that keep those caps in place. But the Pentagon will continue to press its case, said Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and technology.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter intends to keep up the rhetoric, Kendall said last week at a Bloomberg Government conference in Arlington, Virginia.

"He is thinking about how to best explain to people that sequestration is a major problem, and not something that we can absorb and keep on going, Kendall said. "He's working on how exactly to express that."

Absolutely amazing.

I really wonder how the Pentagon expected to win the budget fight with the strategy that they adopted.  Are they smoking crack?

The Pentagon has spent the last 6 years thumbing its nose at its natural supporters in the public, told Congressmen to pound sand when they voiced concern about certain issues and now....when they need help they wonder why they aren't getting it?

I won't even get into the terrible relations between the President and Congress but I'm sure that plays a role too.

So what does this mean?

The ACV is probably dead...again.

The US Army is gonna get slashed....not exactly a bad thing.  A small Army after wars is the natural state of things.  Personally you can take it down to 300K and I think it would be just about right sized.

The dream of a larger fleet is dead.

Oh and China is going to take the next two years of the Obama Administration to probably either gain or get close to gaining parity with the US...especially in the Pacific.

Russia abandons AN-70 project.

via TopWar.RU

In early March, it became known to terminate the participation of Russia in one of the most interesting Russian-Ukrainian projects in the field of military aviation. For several reasons, the Russian Defense Ministry was forced to erase from their work plans for the development and construction of military transport aircraft An-70. Earlier it was planned to take part in the final stages of this project, as well as purchase a few dozen of these aircraft. However, recent events have forced the Russian Defense Ministry to refuse further participation in the project.

This is one of the reasons why this conflict has been so hard for me to wrap my head around.

Ukraine and Russia were once working hand in hand...I'm not talking about the Soviet era but recently.

The loss of Russian participation in the AN-70 project is going to hurt Ukraine bad.  First it promised to safeguard Ukrainian aviation expertise but its going to hurt the Ukrainian budget.  The AN-70 promised to deliver what the A400M couldn't, a strategic airlifter at a decent price.

It looked like a world beater and it would be a best seller.

All that appears to be dead now.

Latest Twitter meme? Where is Putin.

If you check your Twitter feed then you'll find the meme...

#putinumer

to be burning up the web.  Some of it is quite funny.  Ukrainian school kids making drawings of Putin being abducted by aliens, other people speculating that he's in Switzerland to see his "love child" being born...and yet other people claiming he's dead.  Many though seem to be settling for the idea that he's sick...and Russian news media has responded by posting a vid of him meeting with his Justice Minister which makes me think that is the most probable explanation.

An internal Russian power struggle and one of Putin's enemies finally got to him?

Doubtful but this bears watching.

Reinforced Stryker Company video taped being moved by rail through Romania!

Thanks to M.C. for the link!



I could easily be off but that looks like a reinforced Stryker Company's worth of vehicles being moved by rail through Romania.

Interesting.

I wonder what the projected countermove by the Russians is?  The State Dept, US Army and NATO could not expect to do something this provocative without some type of reaction could they?

The Medal of Honor club needs to talk to this guy.

Thanks for the link Joe.

via Yahoo Celebrity News.

Sarah Palin's getting a new son-in-law! Bristol Palin is engaged to her boyfriend, Sgt. Dakota Meyer. The bride-to-be announced the happy news via Instagram on Saturday, Mar. 14.
PHOTOS: Celebrity weddings"Truly the luckiest girl in the world, cannot wait to marry this man!!!!" Palin, 24, captioned an Instagram pic of the couple kissing. In a second photo, she gave a closer look at her gorgeous cushion-cut diamond engagement ring.

That's it.

That's all you get.  Go here to read the article.  Personally my skin is crawling from spending two minutes on a celebrity page. 

And that brings me to the issue with Meyers.

Will someone from the "Medal of Honor" club (that's what I call it...there has to be some type of loose association between winners of the MoH...club, association, something...), someone that will not be impressed and awed by talking to a living recipient of our nations highest honor---- simply talk to him and tell him he's been too public?

I'd do it but I don't know the guy, but by rep he's a good dude but he's taken on some causes that have placed him in the public spotlight that are...unsightly.

Calling out ISIS to come to his house?  Really?  Seriously?  Not the kind of reasoned talk I'd expect from a MoH winner.

Defending the former Commandant from the ire of other Marines?  Do you really want a MoH winner to insert himself so fully into divisive Marine Corps politics?

Now this?

From what I've read the winners of the MoH are all about bringing honor to the men that they fought with.  To educate the public on important military matters.  And to do nothing to bring discredit to the award.

Someone needs to tell Dakota that being a celebrity isn't part of the deal.

Strykers on the move in Europe. But a 1100 mile convoy?

via Ukraine Today.

Eastern Europe, here comes the cavalry.
The U.S. Army says it will soon be sending armored Stryker vehicles on a 1,100-mile convoy through six European countries to show solidarity to allies in the wake of recent Russian actions in the Ukraine and Crimea that have Eastern Europe on edge.
The move was first reported Thursday in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. U.S. Army Europe posted the Stripes story on its website on Friday.
The convoy is "a highly visible demonstration of U.S, commitment to its NATO allies and demonstrating NATO's ability to move military forces freely across allied borders in close cooperation," U.S. Army Europe spokesman Lt. Col. Craig Childs, said in a statement, according to the Stripes report.

Ok.

I get the need for a "visible" response to what many see as Russian aggression in Ukraine (this war confuses the hell outta me though...I keep reading the timeline of events and I just don't know...) but an 1100 mile convoy through 6 European countries?

Seriously?

I've been to Europe and you're looking at a traffic nightmare, serious regulations with regard to traffic laws (the closest comparison I have is to try driving Strykers through the Northeast or maybe Los Angeles during rush hour), inevitable accidents and a pissed off populace looking at the "Ugly American" ruining there day.

I need more info, but sometimes overt displays aren't worth the effort.  This MIGHT be one of those times.

Flyboy 104. Another aviation photographer you should follow.

Thanks to Joe for the link.

The pics below are from Flyboy 104's Flickr Page.  The guy gets around and if you have the time you should pour a little Jack Daniels Honey into your coffee, sit back and scroll through his entire catalog.  Its definitely worth a look see...especially the military pics.  As a sidenote, while the majority of the pics on this site are open source (the vast majority...upwards of 90+ percent) those that aren't need to be protected.  By that I mean give the photographer credit.  

The US Army lost its fight for fixed air and hates the Marine Corps because we didn't.

inferiority complex
noun
1.  Psychiatry. intense feeling of inferiority, producing a personalitycharacterized either by extreme reticence or, as a result ofovercompensation, by extreme aggressiveness.
2.  lack of self-esteem; feeling of inadequacy; lack of self-confidence.

The US Army has an inferiority complex and the F-35 is the latest tool to express that.  Why do I say this?  Check out the latest from American Mercenary...

The consequences of having two ground forces, the Army and USMC, is most easily displayed by the F-35B. The USMC writes their own doctrine stating that they need vertical launch fighter jets, and so by gum they are going to band together with the USAF to make that happen.

So much for "jointness".  Notice how the flawed and failed F-35 is the latest foil to cut down the Marines by some of our Army brothers.

Make no mistake about it.  I believe that the F-35 is gutting our procurement dollars.  Make no mistake about it...the USMC developed a plan B in case the F-35 was canceled.  But its also obvious that orders from on high are keeping that airplane going.  Why do I say that?  It should be obvious to all that if the US Navy was able to walk away from buying just under 300 of these airplanes it would.

But the SecDef won't let it happen.

So the USMC is stuck with this flying piece of camel dung until political critical mass is reached in the US and allied countries to finally take it down to the river and hold it under until its legs stop moving.

But back to American Mercenary.

He's using it (the F-35) as an excuse to question the very legitimacy of  the Marine Corps size and composition.  He even uses my own words....

But wait! as Solomon likes to say, at that point what separates the USMC from the 101st Airborne Division? Mainly the 101st Airborne Division isn't part of a fleet task force or based off of ships where LCACs or LCUs can drop of Abrams tanks.
There is still a tactical and strategic need for a Marine Corps. There is no tactical or strategic need for the USMC to fly service unique aircraft. I've thought it over time and time again, if the Air Force and Navy can't provide the fixed wing support, the solution is to fix the joint fight, not create service unique aircraft for the Marines.

He's missing the larger point.

American Mercenary should be fighting to push Army leadership to reverse the decision that kept them from having fixed wing close air support.

Hating on the Marines because waaay back when we won our battle for survival is simply an expression of inferiority.  Instead he should make the argument, and push hard for the US Army to get retired Air Force A-10's.

The perfect opportunity to put the USN/USMC Sea Base to the test. Super Typhoon Pam...

Super Typhoon Pam is rampaging through the Pacific and islands are being devastated by the rain, wind, mudslides and storm surge.

Read about it and watch the CNN story here.

We saw the response to a hurricane in the Philippines.

A SPMAGTF-CR just didn't get the job done.  No need to replay that experiment.  It failed.  For all the good that was done we could have been just as successful sending the 101st Airborne.

Light Infantry that arrives by air is not what is needed.  They will need the power of a Marine Expeditionary Unit to provide security, medical assistance and clean food/water.

While the MEU is able to perform this mission solo (the Navy/Marine Corps team has perfected this type of relief mission...call them the FIRST joint force), there is something we can add to make this mission even more successful in delivering aid.

Perhaps a hospital ship.  Maybe include an MLP.  Add those two ships to the MEU, understand that the ports will be devastated (as well as the airport) and what do you have?

A sea base.

An entity that is designed to deliver supplies across the beach without the need for ports, in a timely manner whether for relief missions or in support of the full spectrum of combat operations.

Experimenting with peoples lives on the line is terrible.  This real life experiment though will deliver help that they will desperately need while we perfect operating from the sea base in a humanitarian assistance op.

NOTE:  Everyone talks about the prep time that a hospital ship would need to get to areas of concern.  Considering the size of natural disasters in the Pacific we might need to address that.  Additionally an MLP would allow for ships of all nations to offload supplies onto it so that LCACs can ferry goods ashore.  Those two ships combined with the abilities that organic to the MEU would be life savers.  We just need to perfect it now.  What would be quicker?  Moving an MLP to the disaster zone or repairing smashed port facilities?  The Sea Base would be perfect now.

A bully runs his mouth while the little guy puts in work.

A buddy sent me this vid.

His talk and my focus is on the obvious MMA techniques that are being picked up at a younger and younger age.  This isn't a passing fancy.  This can be considered the new form of American unarmed self defense.  I see it at my gym and I'm sure you've seen it too.

The problem?

The mainstream is picking up on what was once another of those closely held "secrets" of the warrior class.  Fads come and go but this has been around long enough for the bad to start creeping in.  What is that?  Criminals will start utilizing some of these techniques against the unsuspecting.

Train hard guys.  It can be a pain in the ass and take up your time but practice ground defense when you get a chance.  If the worse happens it could save your life.

Sidenote:  I love the way the big guy is talking smack instead of putting in work.  Did you notice the little guy?  Not one word.  Just grim determination.  I LOVE IT!