Flyer 72 Tactical Utility Vehicle (TUV)

via Shepard Media.

General Dynamics has unveiled its Flyer 72 Tactical Utility Vehicle (TUV), a design it is pitching as a way to help US special forces transport additional equipment in theater.

At SOFIC 2018, the company showed off its latest transport vehicle for the first time — a variant to the M1288 Ground Mobility Vehicle 1.1 currently being used by the SOF community.

Laurie VanBrocklin, a senior director for communications and marketing services, said the new TUV was developed based on feedback from the field and calls for a way to transport additional equipment.

"What we've organically learned is [SOCOM forces] need a secondary support supplement vehicle to the GMV 1.1," VanBrocklin told Shephard 22 May. "Depending on what their mission profile is, they might be able to take a lot more gear."

The TUV design has an open cargo deck and can operate in restrictive terrain. In its base configuration, it seats three, can transport up to 6000 pounds of cargo, reach top speeds of 95 mph and can drive up to 500 miles on flat ground. A remote or manned gun ring can be housed on top of the platform.

Additionally, the TUV has a number of cargo configurations including an ambulance, shelter carrier, K-9 carrier, mortar weapon and munitions carrier, and 12-crew assault carrier kits.

"So with the GMV1.1 being in the field and hearing things coming back from them, it's just a natural evolution to have this [TUV] vehicle," VanBrocklin said.

"We're talking to the users, 'Tell us what it is that you need? What do you need the vehicles to actually be able to do?'" she added. "That's how we started with the 1.1. You tell us what capability you need and we'll build the vehicle for you to meet that capability."

Hmm.  Above is the newest view of the vehicle.  Below is the past versions (I'm assuming without the add on armor, but can't make out details of what's going on in the rear). 

The IDF F-35 over Beirut. Hubris or Deterrence?

via Haaretz.

With U.S. President Donald Trump at its side and following a series of military gains in the north, Israel is zigzagging irresponsibly on the boundary between deterrence and arrogance. This behavior is not surprising when it comes to politicians. Certainly not in regard to Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz who, like a dyed-in-the-wool internet commenter, told the European Union this week to go to “a thousand thousand hells”; nor in regard to a number of MKs and journalists who have spoken of the events of recent weeks in terms of a divine miracle. What’s more surprising is the way the Israel Defense Forces stumbled in its decision to publish a photograph of an F-35 aircraft on an operational sortie, the first of its kind in the world, over Beirut.

One can understand, albeit barely, the considerations that led the Israel Air Force’s commander, Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, to display the image at a meeting of commanders of foreign air forces that he hosted on Tuesday in Herzliya. Israel wants to show that the advanced warplane is already in use in operational missions. There is certainly a deterrent value to the sight of the plane above Beirut’s international airport and over the city’s Dahiya neighborhood, home to the city’s Shi’ite population, during a heightened period of tension in the north. But it still comes off like inordinate swagger, and perhaps also an attempt to rehabilitate the IAF’s image following the downing of an F-16 during the previous escalation of hostilities with Iran and Syria, in February.

Story here.


via Times of Israel.

Senior cabinet ministers reportedly slammed Israeli Air Force chief Amikam Norkin for releasing a picture and details of an Israeli F-35 stealth fighter high above Beirut, saying the move was “arrogant.”

At a cabinet meeting held Wednesday, ministers condemned the display of the image as “unnecessary arrogance and showing off,” and also “inappropriate and unhelpful,” with one minister declaring it is the kind of thing that should not be revealed even to countries closely allied with Israel, Hadashot news reported from within the closed-door meeting.

Although the report didn’t identify which ministers made the comments it noted that Defense Minister Avidgor Liberman told the meeting that the photo was displayed without his knowledge, or that of IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot.

Story here. 

Was this hubris or deterrence?

That's not the proper choice.  There should have been another option.

This wasn't hubris or deterrence, this was batshit stupid, arrogant beyond belief and an obvious propaganda play.

This was an amateur move from a force that I considered professional.

I don't know what the IDF is doing but this wasn't a good move.  Additionally the "glory" of the announcement is starting to fade and fade fast.

I've read stories that many experts are claiming that the plane was used on "lesser" missions.  That it played "quarterback" (as if that was necessary in the air space they're operating in) or that it performed recon (again...was it necessary to use the F-35?).

This was a pure propaganda play to give the F-35 the "used in combat" moniker but the IDF shat all over the play.  Fortunately for Israel they have cabinet members that will call them on their idiocy.

The only real question that remains to be answered is this. 

If the Israeli Air Force leader did this without knowledge of his superiors then is it time for him to be early retired?

Joseph @ The Warzone on the Future Super Hornet...

No spoilers.  The article is just that good AND DETAILED!  Check out the future of the Super Hornet and drink in the numbers being built.

Read it here.

Blast from Armored Vehicle past...Czechoslovak floating conveyor VOZ

Blast from a tragic past...

A child gives another child a flower shortly after they arrive at Auschwitz in May 1944. Everyone in the photo was dead within hours. 

Open Comment Post. May 24, 2018

Bravo Company, 4th Tanks Battalion @ Pohjankangas Training Area Finland....pic by Staff Sgt. Marcin Platek

HASC says F-35 lacks range to be of use to the Carrier Battle Group..

via Stars and Stripes...

The Navy’s newest fighter jet, the stealthy F-35C, may not have the range it needs to strike enemy targets, the House Armed Services Committee said in a new report, raising troubling questions about whether the multibillion-dollar program is already outpaced by threats.

And critics say the Navy fighter — part of the Joint Strike Fighter initiative, the most expensive weapons program in history — may actually have been out of date years ago.

Story here. 

Hmm.  The Gorilla in the room is the report commissioned by the SecDef that ordered a comparison of the Super Hornet vs F-35C.

That report still hasn't been released.

But back on story.  The Navy is working the problem of carrier strike, attempting to solve the riddle of Chinese naval attack systems and even working on distributed attack.

F-35 fanboys will attempt to tout all the work done as being "enabled" by the F-35 but that's just another lie.

The same applies to the range issue.  The new UAV will unburden the Super Hornet from refueling duties and will put carrier strike back in the game.

The Navy is on it.

The problem is that the F-35 isn't central to the solution to the problems they face.  Quite honestly its probably an albatross around the neck of Carrier Aviation.  The last thing the Navy needs is a maintenance whore that sucks up funds the way a New Orleans hooker sucks up tourists in a skanky back alley.

Open Comment Post. May 23, 2018

N. Korea is a cyber superpower. Do they really need nukes? Does any computer literate 3rd world country to prevent invasion?

via Breaking Defense.

To add some perspective to his analysis, Bennett estimated causalities from a two-kilogram biological weapon — up to 85,000. deaths — and up to 110,000 deaths from a one-ton chemical weapon. Yes, up to 85,000 deaths from two little kilograms of a biological agent.

There was much more grim news on the same day that President Trump appeared to prepare the world for delay or cancellation of the planned June 12 summit with Kim. Reviewing the challenges of war against North Korea — whom he described as the equals of the Israelis as innovators — a former senior South Korean commander characterized North Korea as a “cyber superpower.” Just to make sure everyone of the roughly 1,400 people here at the Lanpac conference put on by the Association of the US Army, got his point, retired Lt. Gen. In-Bum Chun, said: “I repeat– North Korea is a cyber power.”

Story here. 

Are we thinking 20th Century Warfare in a 21st Century world?

Don't get me wrong on this and please hear me out.  I know the services are seeking to incorporate cyber tech on a tactical level.  I disagree with that move.

This statement by the former senior S. Korean commander gives me pause and cheers me on in my belief.

Cyber warfare is a strategic, not tactical weapon.

Having said that I also have to ask this. 

Are nuclear weapons really necessary in this day and age?  If a country is able to develop a robust cyber warfare capability then they SHOULD be able to achieve the same effects with the expenditure of pennies on the dollar.

Cyber warfare on a strategic level should not only be cheaper but just as if not more effective.  Not only will you be capable of sending an enemy back to the stone ages but you'll also have the added benefit of watching their citizens die a slow painful death.

I stand ready to be corrected but the future of cyber warfare IS NOT on the battlefield.  That domain will continue to be ruled by weight of fire.  Maneuver. Shock action.  Initiative of individual units.

But on a strategic level cyber could become the new, cheap, yet highly effective and even ecologically friendly nuke of the future.

Note.  From my chair the little fat boy can give up his nukes, hide under China's umbrella and develop its cyber capabilities to make any move against his regime a nightmare.  Make the deal and then target Hawaii or a California city as a test/demonstration and then apologize sincerely and execute a convict to show contrition.  It sounds crazy but that's what I would do if I was leader of that hermit country.