SNAFU!

Wednesday, November 02, 2016

The Pentagon wants a half-billion more dollars for the F-35

via Business Insider.

Defense officials at the Pentagon say they need up to $500 million more to finish the development phase for the F-35, the troubled fifth-generation fighter that's already gone 50% over its original budget.
The F-35 program office requested the money last month to the Defense Acquisition Board, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news Wednesday. The call for additional funds is pretty familiar at this point, since the program — known as the Joint Strike Fighter since it will be used by the Navy, Marines, and Air Force — has been plagued by lengthy delays and enormous cost overruns.
Its overall lifetime budget has ballooned to more than $1.5 trillion, making it the most expensive weapons system ever built by the US.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has in the past called those cost overruns a "disgrace."
"It has been both a scandal and a tragedy with respect to cost, schedule and performance," he said in April.

Wow.

Forget auditing the Pentagon. Just do a deep dive audit on this program! $500 million dollars more? That money could fund SO many other more important projects! We would have a complete buy of ACV's to replace the AAV. Every Stryker could get upgraded to 30mm Dragoon status! We could replace the F-15/16/18 with new builds!

Russia will have surpassed US forces in three of 10 key areas of combat by 2030

Love him or hate him, it looks like McMaster is the only proponent for ground combat power in the Pentagon. Let's hope the Marine Corps is monitoring Army developments and concepts. Anyway, check this out from AOL.

“Our enemies have not remained static,” warns Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the Army’s charismatic chief futurist. One assessment says that Russia will have surpassed US forces in three of 10 key areas of combat by 2030, reached parity in six, and remain behind in only one. On the US side, the current M1 Abrams heavy tank and M2 Bradley armed transport have been upgraded so many times already that they’re close to “maxed out,” McMaster told an Association of the US Army conference yesterday. But at the same time, he said, “we have tremendous opportunities, associated with technologies at a high level of maturity that can be incorporated into a new generation combat vehicle.”
“I don’t think there’s any one silver bullet,” McMaster told reporters afterwards, “(but) you can see parts of the solution…on combat vehicles today,” such as the German Puma troop carrier, the Israeli Merkava heavy tank, the British Ajax scout, and the Swedish CV90, “a heck of a vehicle.”

Read the entire article here.

Turkey moves tanks to its border.

via Reuters

ANKARA (Reuters) — Turkey’s military has begun deploying tanks and other armored vehicles to the town of Silopi near the Iraqi border, in a move the defense minister said on Tuesday was related to the fight against terrorism and developments across the border.
Fikri Isik said Turkey had “no obligation” to wait behind its borders and would do what was necessary if Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants took a foothold in Iraq’s Sinjar region, about 115 kilometers south of Silopi.
“We will not allow the threat to Turkey to increase,” he told broadcaster A Haber in an interview.
The army deployment, disclosed by military sources, came after President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey was aiming to reinforce its troops in Silopi.
Photos from the sources showed a long column of vehicles, including tanks, tank rescue vehicles and construction vehicles in single file.
The deployment coincides with an Iraqi operation to drive the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and after Iraqi Shiite militias launched a related offensive to push the jihadists out of the town of Tal Afar further west.
Erdogan said on Saturday Ankara would have a “different response” for Shiite militias if they “cause terror” in Tal Afar, home to a sizeable ethnic Turkmen population with historic and cultural ties to Turk

This is another story that everyone is hot and bothered about and I can't see why! You do realize that Turkey has setup a military base INSIDE Iraq that will be the cause of a potential war between Iraq and Turkey once the ISIS mess is cleared up?

You do know that the Iraqis are accusing Central Command of hindering their advance to allow ISIS leaders to flee to Syria.

And you think Turkey moving tanks to the border of Iraq/Syria is a big deal?

Russian army to get new motorized, high-speed rifle squads

via UPI

The Russian Defense Ministry is to form special mobile squads based on motorized troops, the Izvestiya newspaper has reported.
The military wants new squads that will be capable of slipping through enemy defenses on light armored vehicles and strike from the rear and flanks. These will be formed of numerically small groups of saboteurs, which will appear in the Southern and Central military districts in the coming years.
The new military units are also expected to feature special anti-tank and artillery battalions.
"The creation of new mobile units is associated with the emergence of new types of war," Ivan Konovalov, head of the sector of military policy and economy of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, told RBTH. "These units will be used not only to carry out sabotage, but also to fight guerrillas or rebels and suppress insurgencies."

Here.

Ok, so now the Russians are about to use some type of "Expeditionary Squad". I can see it for sabateour work but losses will be high after the initial surprise wears off. Additionally they're talking about fighting terrorists but that threat has morphed to where they're almost nation state type armies.

What am I missing? I notice that they're talking about the Southern District in Russia so could it be that they're aiming to fight a particular enemy? I'm not sure.

4 myths about combat vehicles, debunked by Lt. Gen. McMaster

via US Army.mil

MYTH #3
Combat vehicles have a limited role in restricted environments and dense urban areas.
"That neglects our history," McMaster said. During tank battles in dense forests with sloping terrain during World War II, both the U.S. and the Germans used armored vehicles to support their infantries to great effect, he said.
In the early years of the Vietnam War, it was thought that the jungles were too dense to allow combat vehicles. But one of the first things the U.S. did there, he said, was call for armored vehicles to support infantry and mobile formations.
Those formations, supported by armor, were "the most flexible in Vietnam" and were key to winning a number of battles, McMaster added. More recently, armored vehicles were used in the very dense urban areas of Gaza City in the Gaza Strip and Sadr City, Iraq.
When it comes to enemy forces using civilian populations as shields, armored vehicles, "allow you to take more risk to get closer to that enemy … and to use precision firepower," he said.

Read it here...you won't be disappointed. I find this curious. Is the Army having a battle of "cartels"? I knew that the "Global Response Force" mafia was making a big push, but it seems like the Armored Community is fighting back.

Additionally it seems like they have a major advocate (God! McMaster's still chafes) with stars to push the agenda.

Marine Corps Ground Combat Element needs an advocate. That was once the job of the Commandant and it was thought that the Wing needed a voice. Things have changed though. These days the Commandant and his Deputy speak for the Wing. The GCE is the orphan.

I scream Chris Kyle rest in peace when I cum? (Funny/Not Safe For Work)

J-31 via Chinese Military Review.

They simply copied the F-35 and aren't ashamed. Just wow. How can we think that we can maintain air superiority when the Chinese are robbing us blind and we do nothing to counter it.

Oh and save me the "form follows function" argument. This is obscene and obvious.

China is a MUCH bigger threat than Russia, yet our political/business class ignores the truth. This piece of military industrial espionage is exhibit number one.

US Naval Aircraft Cross Decking on board the HMS Ark Royal via JC's Aviation.

Anyone know the story behind this pic? Also does that deck seem a bit full? I would love to know if they actually were able to conduct flight ops on a carrier that small operating F-4's in what appears to be an over capacity state!

RAW: Footage of Russian aircraft carrier battle group

Thanks to Jeff for the link!

I don't quite get it but everyone is pumped about the Russians sending a carrier to the Middle East. My view is that they're falling into the same trap that we did...they're getting deeper and deeper into the quagmire when once they had a very limited footprint in the region.

As far as the carrier ops themselves? Again I'm really not impressed. Not bashing but ski jumps are rather low grade. The US Navy still has the most complete carrier setup on the planet. Even with degraded capabilities (self imposed) they are still the standard to beat.

MIG-29K's launching without stores? A rather small air wing? The only really impressive part is the SU-33 (I believe that's the plane).

Regardless. Much luck to the Russians. There is no moderate terrorists.