Special Operations Command Pacific puts their knees in the breeze.

All photos by Cpl Reese Lodder

Sgt. Brian Zygmant, a parachute rigger with 4th Force Reconnaissance Company, 4th Marine Division, and soldiers with Special Operations Command, Pacific, walk toward an Air Force C-17 transport aircraft before parachuting over Marine Corps Base Hawaii, July 28, 2011. Over a two-day training event, the recon Marines combined forces with Army, Air Force and Navy parachutists from SOCPAC and SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1 to conduct static-line and free-fall parachute operations. Conducted bi-monthly as part of the recon Marines' sustainment training, the parachute operations served to better parachutist jump proficiency, and allowed jumpmasters to gain experience supervising their parachutists.

A soldier with Special Operations Command, Pacific, glides to the ground during parachute operations on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, July 28, 2011. Over a two-day training event, soldiers, sailors and airmen from SOCPAC combined forces with force reconnaissance Marines from 4th Force Reconnaissance Company, 4th Marine Division, and Navy SEALS from SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1, to conduct static-line and free-fall parachute operations. Conducted bi-monthly as part of the recon Marines' sustainment training, the parachute operations served to better parachutist jump proficiency, and allowed jumpmasters to gain experience supervising their parachutists.

Reconnaissance Marines with 4th Force Reconnaissance Company, 4th Marine Division, and service members with Special Operations Command, Pacific, glide to the ground during parachute operations on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, July 28, 2011. Over a two-day training event, the recon Marines combined forces with Army, Air Force and Navy parachutists from SOCPAC, and Navy SEALS from SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1, to conduct static-line and free-fall parachute operations. Conducted bi-monthly as part of the recon Marines' sustainment training, the parachute operations served to better parachutist jump proficiency, and allowed jumpmasters to gain experience supervising their parachutists.

Told ya.

I told ya this was coming months ago.  I even called an end strength number of between 175,000 and 150,000 billets.

Now the guys over at Information Dissemination are coming out in agreement.  Amazing.  Check it out...but a tidbit....

It was a tough winter for us.  First we lost the EFV in January, then in March of this year we released the Report of the 2010 Force Structure Review Group and in it the Corps did two big things, we'll see if they're both good.  Basically, we're going from 202k to 186k, reserves still stay roughly 40k. 

Well no shit. 

The only real stunning part of this story is the push to build up the MEB's.  That is going to be a major league bureaucratic cluster fuck. 

Just more jobs for the Generals. 

We should stay with three MEBs, have them trained to operate world wide and roll with it from there.  No need to setup an Army like structure of having them tasked to geographic areas.

That's NOT how the Marine Corps conducts business. 

Awesome. Toy Truck Saves Lives.

Who needs DARPA when you have ingenuity?

US State Dept playing in the military's back yard?

I say that because of this press release by the US Embassy in Romania.

Combined Amphibious Assault Exercise Ends Summer Storm 2011

August 3, 2011
On August 3, 2011, about 160 troops participated in an amphibious assault exercise at Capu Midia training range in Constanta.  In the morning, 11 amphibious assault vehicles were launched from USS Whidbey Island with U.S. and Romanian marines on board.  On shore, the marines engaged in a scheduled firing and assault on a building in the firing range.  The exercise was performed by U.S. Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, Amphibious Squadron 6, and Romanian marines from the 307th Marines Battalion and Lt. Dimitrie Nicolescu Naval Unit.

The amphibious assault ship USS Whidbey Island (LSD – 41) visited Romania between July 29 and August 4, 2011, to participate in the Romanian-American training exercise Summer Storm 2011.  The training opportunity and engagement was the first of its kind in Romania and was part of the U.S. Navy’s wider goal of continued Black Sea security and cooperation in the region.

To be honest I haven't kept up on press releases from the State Dept but I do try and keep up with military exercises.  This is the first blurb of its type that I've seen.  Either Romania is more important than I imagined or there is a message being sent to someone.  Either way I would be there is more to this than meets the eye.

4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment in Exercise Lightning Strike.

Photos by Spc. Kimberly Hackbarth

Spc. Patrick Bevans, a squad automatic weapon gunner with 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment “Manchus”, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division fires a Singapore Assault Rifle 21 during a range, July 21, here. Bevans and his platoon participated in the small-arms familiarization live fire with Company B, 2nd Singapore Infantry Regiment during Exercise Lightning Strike, a bilateral training exercise.

Soldiers of Company B, 2nd Singapore Infantry Regiment dismount from a Terrex vehicle during a company field training exercise with 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment “Manchus”, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, July 27, at Murai Urban Training Facility here. The FTX is the culminating event of Exercise Lightning Strike, a bilateral combat training exercise.

After setting off a smoke bomb, soldiers of 2nd Platoon, Company C, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment “Manchus”, prepare to clear the next room in a simulated chain of stores, July 27, at Murai Urban Training Facility here. The platoon, assigned to 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division worked with Company B, 2nd Singapore Infantry Regiment throughout Exercise Lightning Strike, a bilateral combat training exercise.

Soldiers with 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment “Manchus”, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division examine a Terrex that belongs to the Singapore army during a static display of Company B, 2nd Singapore Infantry Regiment soldiers’ assets, July 20, on Camp Pasir Laba here. Soldiers will work with 2nd SIR during Exercise Lightning Strike, a bilateral training exercise.

Hat Tip to Defense Talk.

Another Joe Copalman Special.

Joe has been at it again and I don't know why but I absolutely love this airplane.  Yeah its old as dirt...almost prehistoric but its strangely beautiful.  I don't know why but I do like it.  Check out his Flickr page for more aviation photos.

Bill is at it again!

Click the pic to get the full effect!

Yep!  The Dark Lord returns....  He has a story out on the grounding of the JSF.  Mind you no info is out yet but Bill still finds time to dazzle us.  Read the whole thing but check out this passage from his story....

Details are scant: A statement from the JSF program office reads that "aircraft AF-4's Integrated Power Package (IPP) experienced a failure ... The engine was immediately shut down and the jet was secured.  No injuries to the pilot or ground crew occurred."

The halt in operations "is the prudent action to take at this time until the F-35 engineering, technical and system safety teams fully understand the cause of the incident. Once the facts are understood, a determination will be made when to lift the suspension."

Notice that I highlighted 3 words....

DETAILS ARE SCANT!

In other words lets not do like Sweetman.  Lets wait to see exactly what happened, and what it will take to fix it.  The last grounding lasted for 6 days and the APA crowd was crowing like Rooster on a bright sunny day.  Later they buried their heads in shame.

Lets wait. 

Lets see.

Vago's notebook: F-35B is worth the investment

Thanks Marcase.

More RV than Fighting Vehicle?

Think Defense caught this, and I was shocked and amazed by it.  Suffice it to say that a toilet is the last thing I would expect to see on an APC/IFV....but the Boxer has it.

A Stability Police Force for the United States

This study by the Rand Corporation is going gang busters on certain internet websites...to be honest I had never heard of "A Stability Police Force for the US" and thought that someone was playing a bad joke.  You can download and read it for yourself here. 

But between the economy going south, our government in disarray, and our citizens being on a hair trigger edge, its obvious that things will probably get worse before they get better.

Back to our regularly scheduled posting.

Stack it deep!

*Sidenote*

Another issue that the Pentagon could easily explain away are the reports of "massive" troop movements around the US.  My first thought was that ok, its just the Army moving gear to NTC or Korea....but that doesn't quite get it.  I believe that the Army changed up its deployment protocols when it comes to NTC and units fall in on equipment left there.  Next if its Korea then it wouldn't be this continuous movement of gear.  A one time thing bringing in the new and removing the old.  Regardless, this stuff is catching more and more eyeballs and it would be nice if a simple statement was given to blow away all the conspiracy stuff.  Here's a sample.

An absolute must read!

Elements of Power Blogspot hits back on Sweetman's latest post with cold hard facts.  Its a must read.  Go to his site for the whole thing but here's a tidbit.

Sweetman was taking what turned out to be a fairly gratuitous swipe at the F-35B’s raison d’être. Gratuitous, because he immediately changed the subject for the rest of the post with an awful(ly) lightweight critique of the ‘LHA/D-as-aircraft-carrier’ idea. I won’t dwell too much on what turned in to the main thrust of his agitprop in this post. Instead, I’d like to focus on his ‘damning with faint praise’ sucker-punch on the B’s STOVL capability as quoted above.

 That's within the first paragraph and it only gets better from there.  Elements of Power, you rock guy!

Carriers then and now.

The debate that occurred because of Sweetman's post on the F-35 got me to thinking.  What does a 44 plane airwing look like on a carrier designed to carry 100 plus airplanes?  I present to you the following pictures of the USS Enterprise.

First from back in the day...

What you see above is a fully realized airwing.  Strikers to go far and conduct alpha strikes.  Recon planes to conduct post strike analysis in real time and to ferret out targets of opportunity...long range anti-sub airplanes to keep enemy subs away from the carrier battlegroup...even helicopters to do the close in anti-sub work and to rescue downed air crews.

Then the aircraft carrier today...

What do you see here?  A largely empty deck.  Helos to do the traditional anti-sub, logistics and rescue work and one type of fighter to do fleet defense, strike, recon and other work.

Gone are the still modern A-6F (prototype), the S-3 Viking, and the potentially potent F-14 Super Tomcat.

Naval Aviation is broken.  Its underfunded and stretched thin.  11 carriers is way too much and only adds strain to the aircrews and the ship crews.

A move to 8 or even better 6 big deck carriers should be more than sufficient.  3 on each coast with one in refurbishment, one in deployment and one in training/refit prepping for deployment should be more than adequate.

If a big war were to arise then they can be surged to the trouble location.   Name one time when we needed more than one carrier on location and didn't have time to surge it to the area?

You can't.  Because its never happened.

6 will do fine and will allow the Navy to fully utilize its assets while saving money.

Turkish solo display flight

Its official. Cocaine usage is allowed at HQMC.

I say that tongue in cheek.

But when I read this story from the Firearm Blog...my first reaction was....WHAT THE FUCK!!!!

I just don't know what to make of this latest marketing program.  Read about it at the Firearms Blog and go here for the press release from Crosman.

F-35 at Edwards...more pics...

Commandant speaks alongside the Joint Strike Fighter

F-35 Family at Edwards....

And so it begins...the great LHD vs. Carrier war....

It has begun----the great LHD vs. Carrier war.

At its heart its a deception and pits two parts of the Dept of the Navy against each other....with one part of that Dept operating all the ships in the discussion!  How crazy is that!

Anyway, I digress.  Check out this post by Bill.  I'm going to dissect it a bit.  His words are in bold, my rebuttal will be in red....

The Marine propaganda offensive in support of the F-35B, carried on through events like last Friday’s media visit to Patuxent River, and through Marine-friendly websites, pounds relentlessly on the advantages of short take off and vertical landing.

It has to, because that’s the only respect in which the F-35B is not inferior to the F-35A and F-35C. Avionics are identical. The weapon load and range are less and it is (according to the UK) the most expensive of all the versions.

A complete misnomer.  The CMC went up to PaxRiver to brief the media on the progress of the F-35B.  Its not a propaganda war but more like an exercise in lessons learned.  The media and hence lawmakers weren't kept apprised of the progress being made with the EFV so when it came time to cut they looked at it as a prime target.  He's only trying to prevent that from happening with the F-35.  Nothing suspicious here.  Move along please.

The second point to remember is that most people, looking at an LHA or LHD class ship, will call it an aircraft carrier. Even people with some familiarity with defense issues may not be aware of just how many and big are the differences between these ships and a Nimitz.

The offensive power of an aircraft carrier resides in its air wing. A Wasp or Tarawa is mainly built to transport Marines, their weapons and equipment, and the landing craft and transport helicopters needed to put them ashore. The nominal air combat element onboard one of these ships includes six F-35Bs.

That number can be increased to up to 22 F-35Bs by disembarking helicopters. A paper on the Second Line of Defense website postulates that the JSF force could be increased on the fly, by ferrying more aircraft directly to the ship and dispersing rotorcraft to “lily pad” shore bases, but does not address obvious questions: how do you get JSF weapons, spares and maintainers to the ship? You fly them to the nearest cooperative and suitable port, transfer them to a logistics ship and use underway or vertical replenishment.

No one with even a passing familiarity with defense issues will mistake an LHD for an aircraft carrier.  But Bill ignores the fact that Sea Control Ships based on the LHD have been planned since the early 70's.  Using them this way in an extremis situation has been a part of the play book since then.  Its not hard to figure and the added punch of a normal detachment of STOVL aircraft was demonstrated during the Libya Conflict.  Yeah, land based fighters could get there but they had slow reaction times to targets of opportunity and the fact that land based aviation was used instead of at sea assets can probably be pointed to by historians as one of the failures of this conflict.

The future Carrier Strike Group air wing will include 44 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets or F-35Cs, all with greater range and weapon load than the F-35B. (The air wing size is a force-structure decision, not constrained by space on the carrier.) Reach is further extended by using Super Hornets as tankers. Crucially, the air wing also includes five EA-18G Growlers for electronic attack and E-2 Hawkeyes for early warning.  Increasingly, the CVN is the main base for the anti-submarine fight, with MH-60R/S helicopters.

44 airplanes on an aircraft carrier?  Don't make me laugh.  A carrier could typically carry 100 airplanes during the 80's and 90's so we have a surplus of aircraft carriers!  And that is with Marine Aviation attached to each carrier.

Long story short.  Carriers deserve to be reduced to possibly 8 but probably 6 in total.  We can't afford to man them fully and we can't afford to operate them.

Its time for carriers to become fully manned warships again.  That means cities at sea and a full deck of aircraft.  Read the whole post though and decide for yourself.

Israeli's are getting a second squadron of F-35's!

via the Jerusalem Post.

The Israel Air Force plans to purchase a second squadron of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters during the upcoming IDF multi-year procurement plan that is currently under review within the General Staff.

Last October, Israel purchased its first squadron of 20 F-35s in a $2.75 billion deal. The aircraft are manufactured by Lockheed Martin and are expected to begin arriving in Israel in late 2016- early 2017.

Read the whole thing, but as I've been saying for the past year.  This program is gaining momentum...the US Marines, Israeli's and several others are fully committed to the program.

The critics have failed.

2nd BN 4th Marines in Combat Town 29 Palms