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Tuesday, July 14, 2020
China's Ballistic & Cruise Missiles...
Note. The Chinese Pershing almost ensures that the new Marine Corps battle theory is dead in the water. If they have ISR capability that allows them to target ships then they can also target a couple of anti-ship missile carrying vehicles on land. There will be no easy fight.
Brits to join the US Army's high speed rotorcraft program?
'Future Vertical Lift' on list of joint UK-US army modernisation areas, just announced today. UK looking to Defiant or Valor for next high-speed rotorcraft? #avgeek https://t.co/qILMva7l1l pic.twitter.com/lf0cudZiQJ— Tim Robinson (@RAeSTimR) July 14, 2020
Amazing. I can't wrap my head around this one. Why would the Brits be the prime candidate for the US Army to join their program? Quite honestly they appear to be ready to slice the British Army to ribbons. It'll be 1/3rd the size of the USMC, its current procurement programs are a mess and while tenacious fighters their govt appears to be backing away from expeditionary warfare...at least on the ground.
The Poles I could see. Something to jump start the Germans. Even a consortium of European countries ... something like Spain & Italy. But a Brit force that is about to be eviscerated by their own govt?
I just don't get it.
F-105 Gunnery Practice...
shootdown pic.twitter.com/oYppJF5vod— Skies-of-Glory (@violetpilot1) July 14, 2020
BHR might be salvageable? Not buying it one bit...
UPDATE: The main engineering spaces are fine, no damage. Structure is stable and despite ongoing fires, there is no threat to the fuel tanks. They cite significant progress. No personnel, civilian or sailor, in hospital. The incident will be investigated thoroughly.— David B. Larter (@DavidLarter) July 14, 2020
Wow. That press conference must have been a doozy (didn't see it) cause we're getting some extremely optimistic reporting about the condition of this ship.
I don't buy it one bit.
We all saw the fire so are we suppose to doubt our lying eyes? Not me! Additionally we can look around the Navy and everything is in shit shape. Sorry folks, there just ain't no other way to say it.
Then there is the 800 lbs gorilla in the room. Covid-19 has essentially ensured that AT BEST the DoD budget will be flat. Let me say that again. Covid-19 has ensured that the terrible 20's will be horrific.
Then you add in the changing requirements of Marine Corps amphibious ship requirements, the desire to use alternative platforms, the idea that the MEU is basically dead it makes no sense from a doctrine viewpoint to even try and salvage this ship.
That's it in a nutshell.
Economics and priorities means the BHR is scratched from the naval registry. They hype is necessary for public sentiment, but budget reality will come into play early or mid next year and the money will not be requested for this ship to be refurbished nor will it be provided by Congress.
Scratch one baby flattop.
Monday, July 13, 2020
Dept of the Navy needs a serious back to basics movement...not radical change
The recent fire on the prize of the Navy, the BHR, illustrates a few things to me. The most significant? That the Dept of the Navy (to include the United States Marine Corps) needs a back to basics movement, not radical change.
We've all lived thru the "transformation" era that gave us pie in the sky development programs. Rumsfeld (presumably to seal his legacy after it became apparent that both Afghanistan and Iraq would become quagmires) pushed for weapon systems that to this day have failed to deliver.
In the meantime I've sensed a 'rudderless' ship at the DON and more widely at the DoD in general.
The push to modernize is causing current issues. Maintenance chief among them.
The solution to all this is to make sure you get the little things right. To have the ordinary tasks done at an exceptional level.
To become a proper military force again instead of business enterprise.
There is no easy way for military affairs. It's hard work all the time and there are no shortcuts. Unfortunately it seems that leadership in their zeal to grasp the future is short changing the present.
This must be reversed.
The good that can come out of this fire?
A re-dedication to excellence in all things. A rekindling of the martial spirit that has been the way of the USMC and USN. A realization that there is no easy way.
Confidence is not high but I can hope.
We've all lived thru the "transformation" era that gave us pie in the sky development programs. Rumsfeld (presumably to seal his legacy after it became apparent that both Afghanistan and Iraq would become quagmires) pushed for weapon systems that to this day have failed to deliver.
In the meantime I've sensed a 'rudderless' ship at the DON and more widely at the DoD in general.
The push to modernize is causing current issues. Maintenance chief among them.
The solution to all this is to make sure you get the little things right. To have the ordinary tasks done at an exceptional level.
To become a proper military force again instead of business enterprise.
There is no easy way for military affairs. It's hard work all the time and there are no shortcuts. Unfortunately it seems that leadership in their zeal to grasp the future is short changing the present.
This must be reversed.
The good that can come out of this fire?
A re-dedication to excellence in all things. A rekindling of the martial spirit that has been the way of the USMC and USN. A realization that there is no easy way.
Confidence is not high but I can hope.
Sunday, July 12, 2020
US Navy LHD on fire at San Diego..
Thanks to Vodknar for the link!
Geez. The hits keep coming.
UPDATE...they're talking explosions and I'm watching this on TV. This ship is looking like a total write-off. If not then its gonna be years to repair it. Scratch one big deck LHD. This is ominous. If we're losing ships in port then how will they stand up to actual anti-ship missiles. How combat capable are modern warships when it comes to taking hits?
Another consideration is whether there are more munitions aboard ship. If so then we could see something catastrophic if they go up. We'll get the answer if they tow it out to sea. That means that the fire can't be contained, they can't get the munitions off and they're worried about damage in the community.
Supposedly this has been going since around 10am this morning. A couple more hours should tell the tale.
More views of the #fire burning now on board US #Navy amphibious ship USS #BONHOMME RICHARD LHD6 at 32nd Street Naval Station in San Diego. Reports so far indicate 3 sailors, 1 SDFD fireman injured. At the moment the fire seems to be growing pic.twitter.com/icPblRJOEV— Chris Cavas (@CavasShips) July 12, 2020
Geez. The hits keep coming.
UPDATE...they're talking explosions and I'm watching this on TV. This ship is looking like a total write-off. If not then its gonna be years to repair it. Scratch one big deck LHD. This is ominous. If we're losing ships in port then how will they stand up to actual anti-ship missiles. How combat capable are modern warships when it comes to taking hits?
Another consideration is whether there are more munitions aboard ship. If so then we could see something catastrophic if they go up. We'll get the answer if they tow it out to sea. That means that the fire can't be contained, they can't get the munitions off and they're worried about damage in the community.
Supposedly this has been going since around 10am this morning. A couple more hours should tell the tale.
SNAFU! Blog & Open Source Intelligence...
For most of my readers this is gonna be a 101 course that isn't necessary. For those folks I ask your patience. The rest of the class listen up! This blog seeks information from a variety of sources. We seek information so that we can be ahead of the curve when it comes to news. We can't do it all which is why I seek tips from readers but we try.
What we're trying to do is a low level form of "Open Source Intelligence". via Wikipedia...
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is data collected from publicly available sources to be used in an intelligence context.[1] In the intelligence community, the term "open" refers to overt, publicly available sources (as opposed to covert or clandestine sources). It is not related to open-source software or collective intelligence.By seeking tips from ALL sources...Chinese, Russian, Turkish, Syrian, Iranian, S. Korean, Japanese, Singaporean, Australian, British and everything in between we're seeking to keep ahead of pack.
OSINT under one name or another has been around for hundreds of years. With the advent of instant communications and rapid information transfer, a great deal of actionable and predictive intelligence can now be obtained from public, unclassified sources.
So when you see a tweet posted on this page talking about an attack on a US convoy in Syria and that tweet has verbiage that is obviously inflammatory, insulting and disrespectful to our nation and to our forces YOU SHOULD be able to look past that part of the story and focus in on the fact that SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE is claiming that our forces got hit in that shit hole!
The rest of it doesn't matter and is of no consequence.
The focus should be on whether or not our men and women were attacked in a land far away!
That's the secret to this stuff. You have to sift thru the sand to find the nuggets of gold that might be hidden in it.
Open source intel is something that we do, our allies and enemies all engage in. Bloggers should too. The magic of the internet is wasted if we can use it to be informed!
The return of French forces to Lithuania is reflected in the deployment of 5 Leclerc tanks, 14 VBCI and 5 VAB .
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Its a bit lighter than the armor that we once put afloat with our MEU's but the similarities are striking.
We gave up alot when we adopted Berger's New Marine Corps...
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