Don't get it twisted. I still think this airplane is RAPING the USMC budget and will do so into the future. Want to know moral courage? Being able to say that this plane costs too much, will deliver too little and that its time to walk away.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Israeli F-35B computer generated image...
Don't get it twisted. I still think this airplane is RAPING the USMC budget and will do so into the future. Want to know moral courage? Being able to say that this plane costs too much, will deliver too little and that its time to walk away.
30mm Cannon for Stryker? Bad Move.
Thanks to Chaos34 for the link!
via Breaking Defense.
Quite honestly this is why I sometimes think that partnering with the Army should be done on a case by case basis. Why? The Army focuses so hard on mechanization that it ignores lessons learned.
The Army dismisses with startling regularity the issue of dismounts.
Add a 30mm cannon to a Stryker and you're dropping at least two soldiers.
That just doesn't seem smart. If they're worried about Russia and then nothing less than an Armored Task Force with attached artillery, attack helicopters and UAVs will do.
The Army has what it needs already to deter Russia. This is just a money grab and a bad move.
via Breaking Defense.
The 2nd Cavalry wants the weapons because it’s the Army’s frontline force in Europe. There are only two US combat brigades still based on the continent, the 2nd Cav in Vilseck, Germany and the 173rd Airborne in Vicenza, Italy, a light infantry formation with very few vehicles of any kind and nothing as heavy as a Stryker. The Army has no heavy tank forces permanently stationed in Europe anymore, which the House Armed Services Committee has decried as “short-sighted.”This is craziness!
Since Russia seized Crimea, both the 2nd Cavalry and the 173rd Airborne have deployed to the Baltic States to deter aggression and reassure those small, exposed NATO allies. (The 173rd has even trained some Ukrainian forces). Just a month ago, a 60-Stryker task force of the 2nd Cavalry conducted an 1,100-plus mile “dragoon ride” back from the Baltics to Germany by way of Poland and the Czech Republic. The maneuver showed off the Stryker vehicles’ impressive mobility: As wheeled vehicles, they do better on long road marches than tracked tanks, although their performance is worse off-road. But clearly the Army thought they were lacking in lethality — and that’s what this upgrade is intended to correct.
Quite honestly this is why I sometimes think that partnering with the Army should be done on a case by case basis. Why? The Army focuses so hard on mechanization that it ignores lessons learned.
The Army dismisses with startling regularity the issue of dismounts.
Add a 30mm cannon to a Stryker and you're dropping at least two soldiers.
That just doesn't seem smart. If they're worried about Russia and then nothing less than an Armored Task Force with attached artillery, attack helicopters and UAVs will do.
The Army has what it needs already to deter Russia. This is just a money grab and a bad move.
G36 Rifle have no future with the German military...
via TFB
I find this amazing.
I've read over and over how the G36 is superior to the M16A4. I've had to listen to people drone on and on about how the G36 should replace the American weapon.
And now this.
The funny thing? They're probably gonna buy HK416's...so in essence they're buying the M16 family of weapons.
Germany’s military will have to find a replacement for the current G36 assault rifle, according to Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen. Special Forces troops are to receive new weapons immediately.Read it all here.
Germany’s military was likely to get a replacement for Heckler & Koch’s G36 rifles after Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen declared on Wednesday that the weapon had “no future in the German army in its current state of construction.”
The Defense Ministry would now work towards replacing the gun as soon as possible, von der Leyen said after she met with representatives of the parliamentary Defense Commission in Berlin.
I find this amazing.
I've read over and over how the G36 is superior to the M16A4. I've had to listen to people drone on and on about how the G36 should replace the American weapon.
And now this.
The funny thing? They're probably gonna buy HK416's...so in essence they're buying the M16 family of weapons.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
The new Russian 8x8 APC.
Pics by Vitaly.
Criticize. Accuse. Deride. Hate. You can do all that when looking at the new Russian armor, but you can't deny that they're thoroughly modern, rival what we have in the West and perhaps more importantly they have a plan to get this new gear to their forces.
A swimming 8x8? HQMC should be taking note.
M27 is now being used in the Designated Marksman role?
Thanks to Frank for the link!
WTF! Are we seeing an admission that the M27 failed in its mission to fill the role of replacing the M249 as our platform of choice for suppressive fire? Not exactly. It seems that a hybrid position has crept in.
The Designated Automatic Rifleman.
Another of those concepts I have questions about. We're giving up at least 200m from what we would expect a traditionally armed Designated Marksman to be able to hit. At the same time we've also given up suppressive fires when compared to the M249.
Everywhere I look, all I see is risk being assumed...not because the new systems are better but because they're easier...lighter...cooler looking.
I don't get this new Marine Corps.
WTF! Are we seeing an admission that the M27 failed in its mission to fill the role of replacing the M249 as our platform of choice for suppressive fire? Not exactly. It seems that a hybrid position has crept in.
The Designated Automatic Rifleman.
Another of those concepts I have questions about. We're giving up at least 200m from what we would expect a traditionally armed Designated Marksman to be able to hit. At the same time we've also given up suppressive fires when compared to the M249.
Everywhere I look, all I see is risk being assumed...not because the new systems are better but because they're easier...lighter...cooler looking.
I don't get this new Marine Corps.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Europe no longer a capable military ally or are we really talking about Germany and the UK?
via Marine Corps Times.
We know from following recent news stories that this doesn't apply to the Nordic or Scandinavian countries. Additionally the former Eastern Bloc countries are all increasing defense spending....Italy, Spain, Greece are all spending more on defense than is probably sensible considering their financial situations...and Turkey's leadership is confused.
Which means this jab was really aimed at two countries.
Germany and the UK.
Serious question though. Is that fair?
Germany is basically propping up half the EU financially and the UK has been on more military adventures than a nation its size can actually be expected to participate in. Its easy to slam allies but maybe its not as simple as we'd like to believe.
What say you?
"They're not doing enough," Carter said in an unusually blunt assessment of the Europeans' defense efforts. He said they are spending a smaller share of their overall economic wealth on defense than they did in the past.Interesting.
"It's too low," he said. "And if Europe wants to be a force in the world it needs to be more than a moral and political and economic force, which Europe is because it shares many of our values and demonstrates them around the world. But it has to have the military power that goes with that as well.
"It has to have the military power to be a capable ally of ours, and we see that slipping. It has got to turn around. It's not that they don't have the money to do it."
We know from following recent news stories that this doesn't apply to the Nordic or Scandinavian countries. Additionally the former Eastern Bloc countries are all increasing defense spending....Italy, Spain, Greece are all spending more on defense than is probably sensible considering their financial situations...and Turkey's leadership is confused.
Which means this jab was really aimed at two countries.
Germany and the UK.
Serious question though. Is that fair?
Germany is basically propping up half the EU financially and the UK has been on more military adventures than a nation its size can actually be expected to participate in. Its easy to slam allies but maybe its not as simple as we'd like to believe.
What say you?
More Super Hornets for the US Navy...
via Military.com
The Navy is considering extending production of its F/A-18 Super Hornet beyond 2017 because of delays in production of the Navy’s carrier-launched F-35C and increased demands on the Hornet fleet, service leaders said.Read it all here.
Navy leaders had planned to halt production of the F/A-18 Super Hornet at Boeing’s St. Louis plant in 2017 as the service prepared to replace Hornets with Joint Strike Fighters.
In order to reduce operational risk, Navy aviation leaders have said the service needs two to three additional squadrons of Super Hornets as older F/A-18As, Bs, Cs and Ds reach the end of their useful service life.
“We have looked at the F-18 inventory as part of our overall inventory management. The CNO (Chief of Naval Operations) has testified that looking at our inventory from now into the mid-2020s and 2030s — we need about two to three squadrons of Super Hornets to really reduce risk going forward as we procure F-35Cs,” Rear Adm. Michael Manazir, airector of air warfare, told Military.com in an interview.
The Navy is being quite annoying in all this. Its obvious that they're angling for more Super Hornets and all these little blurbs about how they're facing a fighter shortfall and how they need more is just unseemly.
Just set the deal in motion, handle the fallout to the F-35 program (the USMC, and foreign buyers will be annoyed but so what!) and get this going.
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