Olight makes a 1200 lumen pistol mounted light!

Here.

Simply amazing.  I'm still figuring on a new EDC light and Olight makes a weapon light that is the right size, right lumens and right price?

Why can't they give me all this with a tail clicker?

Why didn't the USAF go with a 2 seat F-16 and call it a day on the next gen trainer?

A reader made this comment that stopped me in my tracks...

Marius 
Welcome back F16A....this could be the next freedom fighter...

If you've been following the short history of the USAF's search for a next gen fighter then you know that the wish list was pretty intense.  They wanted the whole package.  They wanted frontline fighter performance in their trainer.

Of course this makes me wonder.

Was Marius right?  Should they just have bought new 2 seat F-16's and got this off the books asap?  Is this a case of the bureaucracy being so damning that they make work instead of search for quick and easy solutions?

I think so.

Super Hornets to get infrared search and track system

via UPI

 Boeing has received an $89 million contract to incorporate the Block II Infrared Search and Track System, or IRST, in the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, the Department of Defense announced on Thursday.

The contract includes design and development, hardware procurement, technical reviews, risk reduction, and product support and engineering tasks.

Work will be conducted in Orlando, Fla., and St. Louis, Mo. The project is expected to be completed by April 2020. Navy Fiscal 2017 research, development, testing, and evaluation funds of $21 million will be allocated to the program at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year.

The IRST is designed to locate the heat emitted by aircraft engines without the use of active radar, which is easily detected by enemy planes and ships. It also helps countering stealth technology.

And the tech to kill stealth continues to spread....absolutely awesome.  Even better?  I wonder how this will help Marines on the ground...we can work something out I'm sure.

HMAS Adelaide is seriously jacked up!

via Defence Connect

The investigation into the problems facing Navantia-built HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide continue, with Navantia Australia’s managing director unable to confirm when the problem is expected to be resolved.
Speaking to Defence Connect, Francisco Barón said although they are unable to disclose an time frame on when both amphibious ships will be at full operational capability, he is confident the problems are "not really an issue".

"We are working in the collaborative environment so we are putting all our expertise available to the Navy," Barón said.

"As you can understand the RAN are leading the process and we cannot elaborate, there's too much coverage in the media, and from that point of view we leave this to the people in Defence to comment, but we are working on it.

"I am very optimistic that this is something that is not really an issue whatsoever ... you have a car, it has a few issues, you have to go over them."

At this stage HMAS Adelaide will no longer participate in next month's planned Talisman Sabre exercises with the US, and it remains too early to determine whether HMAS Canberra will take part.

HMAS Canberra was commissioned into service in 2014, while her sister ship HMAS Adelaide was commissioned 18 months ago.

The vessels were both built in Spain by Navantia but the engines were installed by engineers from Siemens before maintenance was carried out by BAE Systems engineers.

Both ships have been docked at Sydney's Garden Island since March this year and many theories about the problems with the vessels have been put forward.

Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne has previously denied reports that the wrong oil was put in the engines of the $1.5 billion warships.

"There are two landing helicopters dock [LHDs] or helicopter carriers, if you like," said Minister Pyne.

"One of them was discovered to have a propulsion problem when it was out on manoeuvres and to check whether the other one had the same issues. That was looked at, it was found to have the same issues so both are being fixed in routine maintenance programs as is normally the case. It certainly had nothing to do with oil, I don’t know where that story came from."

The minister also echoed Barón's comments that any problems with the ships are minor.

"It’s not a big stuff up, it’s a very minor problem that is being beaten up out of all proportions. We have many other ships of the line that are in practice right now, out on the seas and these will be fixed," Minister Pyne said.

"I doubt that [it will take six months to fix] very much ... it's not a major problem."

More recently the Minister added "the reality is that there are very many platforms in our armed forces ... Nobody ever expects a piece of equipment to never have a problem in its entire lifetime. It’s good that these problems have been discovered now when the ships are not in any kind of active duty."

Wow.  Aussies have no luck.

$800 Kiwano K01 monowheel electric scooter

This is just plain cool.  Big cities could use this type of transportation and start closing down some of those congested roads.

Personal transportation that a city dweller can store in their apartment?  Pretty awesome!

LM-100J Makes First Flight

I was gonna include the press release but its the usual usual.  Is it my imagination or is this the Brit stretched model?  Anyway, this plane should sell.

Not too many WW2 bombers and seaplanes left to convert into aerial tankers so a replacement will be needed.  As far as the commercial market for cargo planes is concerned, I have no idea.  We'll see what we'll see, but the Russians have the outsized cargo market cornered with that big plane they have.  Maybe someone should consider refurbishing C-141's and C-5's.....

US Marines and Army disappointed by latest budget

via SeaPower Magazine.

The fiscal 2018 defense budget request provides only “modest improvements” in funding for the Army and the Marine Corps, a fact that clearly disappointed both senior officers from the two services and members of the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee May 24

That led subcommittee Chairman Mike Turner to ask what the services would do if additional funds were provided and to request submission of their unfunded requirements list as soon as possible.

“I am concerned that the current budget does not go far enough,” the Ohio Republican said, noting that the Trump administration’s defense request for $603 billion was only 3 percent above last year’s request.

“I’m concerned that we are losing our competitive advantage over our near peer competitors,” Turner said.

He supported the $640 billion proposal from HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas.

Ranking Democrat Niki Tsongas said the request for the Army and Marines “do appear to show modest growth,” which the Massachusetts representative called “welcomed news” given the urgent need for modernization of the ground capabilities.

Similar complaints came from other panel members in a hearing cut short by extensive floor votes.

Lt. Gen. John Murray, the Army’s top resources officer, and Lt. Gen. Gary Thomas, the Marine Corps deputy commandant for Resources and Programs, agreed that the proposed budget did not provide much relief from the extended requirement to prioritize current readiness for the deployed forces at the expense of modernization.
Thomas said the Marines would focus the limited modernization funds on replacement of their aged legacy systems with the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV), the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, the F-35B Lighting II joint strike fighter and the CH-53K heavy lift helicopter. The Corps also would fund changes in their equipment sets to support mobile, networked forces and to expand use of unmanned systems, he said.

Both of the officers answered “yes” to Turner’s question of whether they could accelerate modernization programs if provided more funds. They also agreed that the policy calling for elimination of “cluster munitions,” which are rocket rounds or aerial bombs that disperse dozens of small explosive charges, would eliminate an important capability.

The two said they are pushing programs to improve their long-range support weapons, with the Marines seeking to buy additional munitions for their High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

On the Marines’ top ground combat modernization program, the ACV, Thomas said their budget requests a small number of vehicles because they planned to select one of the two competing prototypes later in fiscal 2018 to start low-rate production. While they could not accelerate initial operational capability even with additional funding, they could speed up the full operational capability with more money.

This entire article needed to be highlighted.

Question.

What happens when your hope for more funding falls flat because of Inside the Beltway gamesmanship, and you've pissed away too much money on the F-35?  I don't know but we're about to see!

The plan on how they would put all this together is becoming quite clear.

They would push  for the F-35 as soon as possible.  They were aware of the fact that it was eating up money that the rest of the force desperately needs but they felt it was a gamble worth taking.

It would have worked too, except that the F-35 continues to linger in development hell, and even the plan to buy more planes sooner isn't gonna solve the expense problem because all those early buys will need to be updated to the final version.  In other words the more planes they buy early the more it will cost to fix them at the end of testing.

HQMC is gonna have to readjust.  It has to come up with a new plan because the old plan is DRT.  Dead Right There!

Sidenote:  What has me scratching my head is the part where the Congress Critter asked the General if they got additional funds could they speed up the ACV program.  The General said no, but that more funding could speed up the full operational capability?  Was he high at the time?  A year long test is bullshit!  They're basically asking you to ask for more money and he says no? I wonder why he can't adjust the plan to do more faster!  Either he's crazy or we're seeing some financial common sense returning to the Marine Corps.

Politics Talk. It was fun and games but now you screwed the Brits! Now we have an opportunity!

via Washington Post.

President Trump on Thursday denounced U.S. leaks about Britain’s investigation of the Manchester terrorist bombing as “deeply troubling” and asked the U.S. Justice Department and other agencies to launch a full investigation.

Leaks from the ongoing probe — including the publication of crime-scene photos in the New York Times and the naming of the suspected bomber by U.S. broadcasters — have provoked ire from British officials.

In response to the disclosures, British police investigating the Manchester attack took the highly unusual step of withholding information from U.S. agencies, whom they believe are responsible for the leaks. But by late Thursday evening, police said they had resumed intelligence sharing following “fresh assurances.”

British authorities have not said that the leaks have hurt the investigation into worst terrorist attack in Britain in more than a decade -- 22 people died and 116 were injured Monday evening following a bomb explosion at the conclusion of a pop concert in Manchester.

But some commentators have suggested that publishing the name of the suspected bomber could have compromised the investigation. Withholding of the name for longer could have allowed authorities to track down people who may have since gone to ground, they said.

I've said the intel agencies were out of control but the media and some of my readers instead called the leaks and the leakers patriots.

Trump himself has actually bitched about the leaks and called for an investigation of them.

It all fell on deaf ears.

News reporters and the leakers reveled in the glory of being defenders of the American people by letting top secret and above info into the wild.  They basked in the idea that they "made journalism cool again".

The made excuses.

Now?

Now Trump has the ammo necessary to do a real deal purge.  He has a golden ticket to ruin the deep state and start an effort to hunt down the leakers.

It wouldn't surprise me if there isn't a secret court order that gives permission to start tapping phones and monitoring communications from certain individuals based on national security!

The only laughable part of this whole thing is the Brit decision to stop sharing information.  I'd bet body parts that the statement was made to satisfy UK popular opinion.  What do I base that on?  McMaster has said nothing.  Not a word about the leak.  Not a word about the British action.

This tough talk from the British Prime Minister is just talk.

If I'm wrong then the Brits have a huge, low hanging pair of " don't give a fuck" on them.

T-50A Air-to-Air Footage

Ben Carson's controversial statement about poverty lacks nuance.

via CBS News.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson said in a radio interview airing Wednesday that a mindset parents hand down to their children contributes to poverty.

"I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind," Carson said in a SiriusXM radio interview with Armstrong Williams, a top adviser to Carson's 2016 presidential campaign. "You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they'll be right back up there."

"And you take somebody with the wrong mindset, you can give them everything in the world, they'll work their way right back down to the bottom," the neurosurgeon continued.

The former GOP contender also referred to a "poverty of the spirit" and a "wrong mindset" that can develop from inadequate parenting and a negative environment.

"I think the majority of people don't have that defeatist attitude, but they sometimes just don't see the way, and that's where government can come in and be very helpful," Carson said. "It can provide the ladder of opportunity, it can provide the mechanism that will demonstrate to them what can be done."

Wow.  For such a smart guy Carson can be a real ass.  His statement lacks NUANCE...and understanding...and empathy.

But he was onto something and didn't even realize it.

What he should have said is that poverty...not having certain goods or being able to afford certain things....is real.

If that poverty extends to not even being able to put food on your table or clothes on your back then it is crushing, back breaking and intolerable for a nation such as our own.

But that isn't the reality for a majority of people that we consider as living in poverty.

The issue is behavior.  The issue is pride.  The issue is having a personal view of yourself that will not condone certain 'actions'.

My grandparents were poor for a loong time and made it to the middle class toward the late stages of their life.

What did I hear from them constantly?

We might be poor but we're proud.

Just because we're poor doesn't mean you have to be nasty.

They can act like that but we don't.  We're no better than them, but we won't be like them.

What was the practical application of those statements that ring in my ear to this very day?  My granny was a neat freak from hell!  You better not let a crumb rest on the dinner table after eating.  Grandpa would have you cutting the yard even if you thought that it didn't need cutting!

You heading out the door?  Shirt tucked in and you better have yourself squared away!

You see some kids acting out in a local store and running around like they lost their minds?  You sure as hell better not take part in the shenanigans!

Carson was wrong in his statement (in my opinion), he had a point but stopped short of the mark.  If he was a bit more nuanced and took the economic factor out of it then he would have been spot on.

MD Helicopters supports Afghan MD530Fs....

via UPI.

MD Helicopters Inc. has received a $76.7 million contract for logistical and contractor support for the MD 530F helicopter, the Department of Defense announced Tuesday. The contract falls under foreign military sales to the Afghanistan Air Force.

U.S. Army Fiscal 2017 funds of $37.6 million have been allocated to the program. Work will be completed in Mesa, Ariz., and Afghanistan. The program is expected to be finished by May 31, 2018.

"The MD-530s are flying multiple missions a day across Afghanistan," Air Force Lt. Col. Bill Ashford of the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron said last year following delivery of 27 of the helicopters to Afghanistan last year.

"They are often engaged in providing aerial escort to convoys, providing over-watch to ANDSF operations and responding to 'troops in contact' situations."

This is a totally unremarkable story except for a couple of issues it highlights. First the MD530 is a lightweight and by comparison, simple helicopter.  That MD is able to get such a meaty contract to support them is disturbing.

The Afghans will NEVER be able to form a proper military.  We've been training and advising for over a decade and it should be obvious by now.  They either don't want to, or can't learn to fight the "US way".

Maybe we should supply them with Vietnam era weapons instead.  They face an insurgency, not a high tech army.  I believe we should supply them accordingly.

Next is how we've approached fighting in Afghanistan.

We've been pushing that advise and assist nonsense for far too long.  It's past time for the US military to step aside and let the tribes determine their own futures.  Either they agree to stop fighting or they don't.  But we get out of the way and let them determine their own future.

If a threat pops up in the future then we solve it with some modern day B-52 Arc Light missions that make the MOAB strike look like a gentle spring shower.

It's past time to stop spending blood and treasure on people that won't fight for themselves.

Open Comment Post. May 25, 2017