Marines receive their first CH-53K

via Press Release.

Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company (NYSE: LMT), delivered the first CH-53 King Stallion helicopter to the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) today. The aircraft is the first of an expected 200 helicopters for the Marine Corps' fleet.

The CH-53K is the new build replacement for the U.S. Marine Corps' aging CH-53E Super Stallion fleet. The CH-53E first flew in 1974 and entered service with the USMC in 1981.

"Our first delivery of a CH-53K to the Marine Corps marks the start of a new generation of true heavy lift helicopter deliveries by Sikorsky that bring unsurpassed and expanded capability across the modern battlefield to provide tremendous mission flexibility and efficiency in delivering combat power, humanitarian assistance or disaster relief for those in need," said Dan Schultz, Sikorsky President and former CH-53 pilot. "With 18 additional aircraft in various stages of production already, the entire Sikorsky team, in partnership with our suppliers, is looking forward to additional deliveries to delight our customer."

This first CH53K heavy lift helicopter will be stationed at Marine Corps Air Station New River in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

There the helicopter enters into the Supportability Test Plan. U.S. Marines will conduct a logistics assessment on the maintenance, sustainment and overall aviation logistics support of the King Stallion. This assessment also will validate maintenance procedures with Marine Corps maintainers conducting hands-on care/upkeep of the aircraft. The Supportability Test Plan will ensure readiness and support on the flightline when CH-53K helicopters enter into service with the USMC.

Sikorsky expects to deliver its second CH-53K helicopter to the USMC in early 2019.

The CH-53K test program recently completed the following milestones: maximum weight single-point cargo hook sling load of 36,000 pounds (16,329 kilograms); forward flight speed of over 200 knots; 60 degrees angle of bank turns; altitude of 18,500 feet mean sea level (MSL); 12-degree slope landings and takeoffs; external load auto-jettison; and gunfire testing.

"I am very proud of the work accomplished to deliver the most powerful helicopter ever designed into the hand

This is good news and will enhance the capability of the FMF.  If the concepts are right then the force being built will be formidable.

Only thing I wonder about is the delay in getting the next bird.  2019?  I would think they'd be pushing these off the production line like "Left Twix" Candy bars!

But that's just a quibble.  After the comment from the CH-53E pilot I'm all about getting these into the fleet yesterday!

French Jaguar EBRC 6x6 Recon Vehicle rolls out...

Thanks to Vodkar for the link!

Un ptit tour du (pas de) #Jaguar ? pic.twitter.com/ckD984KTFR

— Forcesoperations (@ForcesOperation) May 16, 2018

Vroom vroom ! En Avant ! #Nexter #RTD #EquipeFrance #Scorpion #sensation pic.twitter.com/sKEoEmhqbg

— Forcesoperations (@ForcesOperation) May 16, 2018

#Scorpion sort son dard! 1er proto d’EBRC Jaguar dévoilé aujourd’hui à Satory #Nexter pic.twitter.com/dMxrko87GX

— Forcesoperations (@ForcesOperation) May 16, 2018

I like it.  The only thing I would want that it doesn't appear to have is a bit more ground clearance.  Recon vehicles that are wheeled need ground clearance or they're worthless offroad.

Memphis Bell, the famous B-17 flies no more...placed on display....

What a pity.

I really believed that the plane might fly forever, especially with 3d printing coming online.

Wish I hadn't got this wrong.  Airshow touch many more people that planes on static display...

German Army is in terrible shape as it prepares for Nato Crisis Response role...

via Stars and Stripes.

Germany’s military is virtually undeployable and security experts say it is too weak to meet its obligations to its allies, as it prepares to assume command of NATO’s crisis response force next year.

Pressure on Berlin is mounting after a series of revelations has exposed the German military as one of the least combat ready in NATO, despite its economic heft.

“The readiness of the German military is abysmal,” said Jorge Benitez, a NATO expert with the Atlantic Council in Washington. “For years, German leaders have known that major elements of their armed forces, such as tanks, submarines and fighter jets, are not fully operational and can’t be used for actual military missions.”

Story here. 

My European readers are gonna hate the obvious question but here we go.

Why are we wearing out our forces with these "Reassure Europe" operations, that are BUSTING UP our op-tempo and ruining any chance for us to rest and reset both our equipment and people, if nations on that continent like Germany aren't doing the basics to have a decent military?

When did leadership mean shouldering the whole load for the defense of the West?

Europe has a larger population base.

Europe has a larger GDP (when all nations are combined like they are in the EU).

Yet they collectively spend less on defense?

They fail to meet the very PITIFUL requirements laid out by NATO?

Something has to give.  Trump might have said it loudest but the cry for Europe to do more to safeguard Europe has been said by many others for the past two decades.

Open Comment Post. May 16, 2018

You missed some of the news about changes coming to Marine ground forces...

Here is some news you missed about the changes coming to Marine ground forces.  via Stars and Stripes...

Each rifle company will gain an operations/intelligence section, a logistics cell and small arms repair, the statement said. Marine battalions will add an information management officer and an information environment operations officer and chief to integrate “information warfare capabilities.”

Each infantry battalion will gain a forward air controller, which means each rifle company will have one assigned.

Plans also call for combat engineer squads to increase to 13 Marines and engineer platoons to be attached to each infantry battalion.

The Marines’ 2nd Tank Battalion will get an additional company while the service upgrades its M1A1 active protection systems and target acquisition and sensor suites, the statement said.

The service also plans to bring back 5th Battalion, 10th Marines as a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, battalion in fiscal year 2023.

The Marines also plan to field upgraded light armored vehicles with anti-tank capabilities.

Story here. 

Wow.

We got so caught up talking about the Infantry Squad that we missed this news.

I'm still left in the starting blocks on this!

It's obvious that the chestnuts are still being kicked around the campfire though.  An increase in Combat Engineer Squad size?  While diminishing the size of the Infantry Squad?  Ok.  If you say so.

The INFANTRY COMPANY gets an intel sections, a logistics cell and small arms repair?  That screams independent operations which probably means Majors instead of Captains leading them.  It also means that Company Landing Teams are alive and well.

Oh and the increase in the Engineer Squad means that urban combat is still a thing and they're planing accordingly.

2nd Tanks gets an additional company?  Are they under strength?  If not then why didn't this go to 1st Tanks?

HIMARS is going to 5/10 which is being brought back?  Interesting.

Not much to bitch about.  Just need to drink it in. 

The only real thing that bothers me is that they're in the mode of Amos.  They pop shit on us and we don't get to participate in the debate.  Its all insular.  Its all so top down driven with exercises and "certifications" that seem a bit scripted.

If only General Van Riper was still around playing the opposing force to these concepts and telling us they're good to go.  Then I would have confidence.  But now?  Now I can only wonder and think that they're reaching hard for change instead of evolving naturally to face the future.

Frustration mounting. Must do better when discussing tough issues....

We're not trying to take over the world here (although just like the "Brain" it is a personal mission of mine), but we are trying to seize a part of the internet and talk about shit others shy from.

But frustration is mounting.

Seriously guys.

Ya got to break out of your camps, do me the small favor of taking a big picture view of things, stop drilling into the weeds, and STOP BEING so fucking miniscule and agenda focused on the controversial shit.

What I'm asking some of you to do (this isn't a wide raging critique, this is squarely aimed at a few) is to simply THINK!

Memes ain't gonna cut it for discussions on this page.

If all you can do is spout nonsense from the left and right then I'm gonna tune you out and then ban you if you can't or refuse to keep it between the lines.

What brought this on?

The latest discussion about the issues in Gaza.

I'm trying to take a big picture view and look at the thing from 90 miles up instead of diving into the weeds which tends to muddy the water for all (we're not there so we don't know the nuances of the situation...easy to bitch till you're the guy on the end of a Palestinian molotov cocktail or vise versa looking down the barrel of an Israeli Tavor) so we MUST be big picture about this stuff.

Now let me get actual and factual.

If you have racial angst or hatred then spare me.  Culturally I identify as an American of African ancestry.  Full fucking stop.  I haven't done an ancestry online.  Did do my stuff for God and country. 

This is again looking at the post when I compared the geopolitical situation that Israel is facing with that of S. Africa.

I don't give two shits about the fate of White S. Africans today.  I just don't.  Many don't seem to have given two shits about the fate of Black S. Africans when they were being ravaged during apartheid.  To that I say cool.  To each his own.

But don't fuck with a blog post that is not at all touching on that racial drama when I'm trying to go beyond that.

I'm not a word smith.

I don't present complex ideas.  I do as I've been trained.  I take the issue at hand, break it down donkey style and then attempt to overwhelm it.

Whether thats trying to figure out how to take a morning shit or looking at the situation facing Israel that's just how I roll.

So I simply ask this.

Stay on fucking topic.  Stay focused on the issues presented.  If you want to vent then do that on open posts but not on issues that I raise with readers to chew on.

End of counseling.

Now get out there and do better.  Next time I smash heads, kick ass and put you in the fetal position begging your mommy to make the bad man stop.

Bell V-280 does 190 knots. Should we be impressed?

via Defense News.

Bell’s V-280 Valor tilt-rotor demonstrator has now flown in cruise mode, reaching 190 knots.

To achieve cruise mode, the rotors in the V-280 pivot from vertical lift to fully forward-facing. While the company reached 190 knots in recent flight tests, it will continue to expand the envelope until it reaches an expected speed of 280 knots, a company spokesman told Defense News on May 15.

The aircraft is part of the Joint Multi-Role Demonstration program that will inform the U.S. military on requirements for a fleet of future helicopters expected to come online, possibly before 2030.

Story here. 

Should we be impressed?  190 knots? 

YOU BET YOUR ASS WE SHOULD BE IMPRESSED!

They're doing a crawl, walk, run type build up and this thing is in the air doing its thing!

Hate to say it cause I like the Sikorsky Defiant too and think it could provide a capability that the V-280 doesn't...but its not doing work right now.

It's kinda stuck in the starting gate.

Not a fan of tiltrotors for assault (unless they've changed descent speed to something approaching that of conventional helicopters when hitting an LZ) but the advance in tech is noteworthy.

Which leads me to a last question.

Is there some kind of unknown (to me) aerodynamic law that makes smaller tiltrotors better?  Just thinking about the history of this stuff and the XV-15 was a tilt rotor but it was small.  So were many that came before.  When we originally went larger with the XCH-142 we went to tilt wings (wish they're modernize that design and bring it back with modern engines).

Is it about aerodynamics and some other rules I just don't know about or is it something else?

US Army rushing Mobile Shorad Launcher (MSL) Stryker to service

The story that hasn't gotten enough play time this week?

The US Army has gotten the MSL Stryker into service and will soon have it deployed to Europe.

Why am I impressed?

Because we did the Russian thing.

We took an existing vehicle and modified it to meet an essential need.  Take the F-35 out of it.  We still need to reinvigorate, and rebuild our air defense forces.

This is an awesome step forward toward that goal.  Quite honestly the Marine Corps should probably do the same thing they did with the MLRS.  Adopt the light version of the system that the Army developed (HIMARS) for their Light Infantry Brigades and get it into service with the Corps.

Is this the future with more budget trainwrecks coming?

I think so.

For better or worse we've seen a generation of military leadership squander an opportunity to develop NEW gear for the next war.  Our boys and girls will be riding into battle with stuff thought of in the 70's, 80's and 90's.

It's not suppose to be that way.

This generation is suppose to set the table for the next but an ill conceived war on terror with a jacked up/impossible to achieve mission mindset (generational war for a volunteer military that has been going on for 20 years with the added idiocy of a false INCREASED operations tempo...anyone who thought that was a good idea was smoking industrial grade crack) doomed any chance for improvement.

The best we can hope for is that they're able to breathe new life into old gear...in other words doing things the Russian way.

Canadian Army @ Exercise Fast Reflex 2018