Friday, June 08, 2018
Thursday, June 07, 2018
Strong Europe Tank Challenge. Looks like Sweden, Germany and Austria winning medals with the others falling in place behind...
US got smoked again.
That sucks.
Armor Porn. CV90 MkIV @ Eurosatory!
BAE event info here.
This is the best tracked IFV on the market today. Full stop, no competition. Spare me the Namer, its a big APC. Spare me the BMP variants. They're well armed but lack the armor and electronics. Puma? Did you read the latest about that rig? Looks great but needs serious work...won't be ready for prime time till 2029 or so. T14? When its ready we'll talk. K21? Good but can't compare.
When it comes to tracked IFV's the CV90MkIV is top dog.
Army modernization vid...lots of corporate talk, but still lacking against a peer foe...
The Army's modernization strategy has one focus: make Soldiers and units more lethal to win our Nation's wars, then come home safely.#ArmyFutures pic.twitter.com/UliYVdzoPe— U.S. Army (@USArmy) June 7, 2018
Check out the embedded vid.
Do you see what I do? The Army is saying all the right stuff but they're failing to lift their heads up out of the foxhole and see what's going on around them.
They're so stuck on the idea of cyber warfare, electronic warfare and yes...still stuck on counter terrorism that they fail to realize that we're gonna need an across the board modernization effort akin to the Reagan effort so long ago.
Reagan realized we were behind and sought to catch up.
Today?
We can't afford to throw money at the problem so they have to get smart. Evolution where necessary and leap ahead where possible.
The idea of maintaining pace with allies is fraught with peril. It's obvious that they will not invest in their own defense. So we must be first be prepared to defend ourselves and then have the debate about which countries are worthy of our continued protection and which need to be cast in the trash heap of history (with regard to a US alliance).
Back on task.
I hope you guys see something different in this vid. I hope I'm wrong as two left feet. I want you to explain to me how this all makes sense and that I should be cheering the effort.
Do that and I can chill for a sec. Meanwhile this is wall punching time. From my chair I'm watching it all slip away.
Armor Porn. M1 Abrams at Strong Challenge...
Big Red dressed these tanks nicely. I know they're gonna let the Europeans win for the sake of "team building" (bring the hate!) but damn they look good!
Strong Europe Tank Challenge 2018
I absolutely love that old skool WW2 type star on the side of that Abrams! Looks freaking fantastic!
The USMC's Super UAV is all about "untying" from an aircraft carrier?
via USNI.
With the F-35B Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter now fielded, an Upgunned Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) – a typical Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) embarked on a three-ship Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), plus a couple cruisers or destroyers – is a formidable naval unit: it carries a Marine landing force, a fifth-generation stealthy fighter capability, a high-end radar paired with the Aegis Combat System, and the networking to tie them all together. The only thing missing is an airborne early warning system like the Navy’s E-2D to identify and cue surface and air threats.Story here.
That is the capability gap the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Expeditionary – or MUX – will fill.
“Think about the ESG, the Amphibious Ready Group, the large-deck amphib: even if it’s upgunned with a set of [surface warfare] assets with Aegis radars, we are still missing an airborne early warning capability. And therefore, in the fight of the future, we are going to be tied to the carrier strike group,” Brig. Gen. James Adams, director of the capabilities development directorate at Marine Corps headquarters, said during a MUX industry day presentation today.
“That’s why airborne early warning is our number-one top-tier requirement (for MUX). We don’t have an E-2D obviously with the ARG, we could never get one, but we need that capability present inside the ARG as we distribute forces in connection with and in support of the concepts – [Distributed Maritime Operations], [Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment], [Expeditionary Advance Base Operations] – in the future and enable the naval force to be more lethal and allow us separation from and integration with the carrier strike group. And that’s why [airborne early warning] is so important and why it bumped up from being way down somewhere in the ICD (initial capabilities document) as a nice-to-have to an absolute essential must-have.”
Adams said some lawmakers have gone so far as to suggest a light-carrier concept for the Marines so they could operate their own E-2Ds and have airborne early warning capabilities in ARG/MEU operations, and he said fielding the MUX will be a better solution to bringing that capability to the amphibious force.
Marine Corps leadership has me spinning.
Not long ago all we heard was talk about the F-35 playing mini-AWACS. Now? Now we hear that we need a UAV to perform the mini-AWACS role.
That's not the most disturbing part though.
Once again we keep seeing the chess pieces being moved. Once again they're talking about a MEU engaging in the high end fight.
It's not suppose to be that way.
MEU's conduct the INITIAL landing with follow on forces arriving quickly. VERY VERY VERY QUICKLY if you're talking about fighting more than 3rd world forces.
In essence the point I'm trying to make is that the Marines are moving the goal posts in the way that our critics love for no good reason. They're bastardizing our own concepts to justify spending money on a capability that is already resident inside the Dept of the Navy!
Why would Marines fight a peer opponent solo?
This is a strawman justification if I ever heard one.
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