Avengers the movie.

Uh.

That's the best I can say after seeing this movie.

Uh.

From Cap's uniform looking rather dorky to Black Widow double wielding Glock 26/27's (blow up this pic and you'll see a good view of her weapons...geez...Black Widow is better than that...at least Glock 18's!), the movie just didn't hit my wow spot.

Quite honestly the best parts of the movie was Iron Man (Downey is great...again)...the Hulk, mainly because his character is getting fleshed out a bit and finally Thor didn't disappoint but he didn't wow...

Save your cash and catch this on Video on Demand.

Female Marine Officer bitching and whining.

God spare me the bullshit!

Check this out from USNI Blog.

All three of my kids have flight time in Marine Corps aircraft. 

You're thinking wow!  This family produced 3 Naval Aviators!  Cool huh?  NOPE!  She was pregnant at the time.  PATHETIC!  But wait there is more.

Pre-flight school, back in 1999, I married my husband, a USMC infantry officer.  We did NOT want kids.  Of the first 9 years of our marriage, we lived in the same state for about 3 of them.  In my mind, kids = wasted career.  We were happy being childless and laughed at the idea of having kids, and how it would “ruin” things.  Why would we ever want to have kids, right?   Anyone with kids is laughing at us and the stupidity of that comment.
But…as it turned out, we had three kids, who are now aged almost 7, 3, and 18 months.  And instead of still flying, still deploying, and staying on active duty for 20 or more years, I find myself a Reservist with three little kids, not flying at all, and driving myself crazy.  This was NOT the original plan.  It took me three years to accept the fact that life had changed (in what was a wonderful way, of course, but I didn’t see it like that at first).  And I don’t know that I’ve really accepted it yet.
I don’t regret the choice to leave active duty for the Reserves (when my oldest was 2 ½ years old), but it shouldn’t have been the only viable option.  I had nearly ten years in at the time, advanced qualifications in the aircraft, and the desire to keep doing it all.  For a long, long time.  But single-parenting through most of my oldest daughter’s first two years of life showed that I could not do it all, at least not without something coming off of the track.  I went kicking and screaming from active duty, but did not see any other way, since I was failing at parenting and failing at being a Marine Corps officer/pilot.  And that is one big reason that the services lose experienced women and men at a certain point in their lives and careers.  But is it necessary?

Are you fucking kidding me?

Who the hell said to get pregnant in the first place?

Who said that you had to leave the service?

This is what pisses me off.  She made life choices and is pissed off because of the choices she made and is now trying to blame the Marine Corps.

How about this.

Don't have kids but if you do then .....

USS America...redone as a Light Carrier.

More Fords not Cadillacs.

Ultimate RatioReg penned an article for USNI that asked the question "must every carier be a supercarrier?"  My answer is no, no it doesn't. (Read it here)

The US Navy is in the fortunate position of being in the midst of transformation.  An unwanted transformation but one none the less.

My proposal is simple and it echoes the calls that others have already made.  Why are we basing our naval air forces around 11 big deck carriers?  Why not make some basic modifications to the USS America class, and develop them into Strike Carriers? 

We've done it before.  Adding length to these ships and giving them catapults and angled decks is not something we should automatically shy away from.  CV-9, USS Essex when originally designed had no catapults, no angled flight deck and its deminsions were remarkably similar to the USS America's.  She was modernized after the war and served with distinction.

We can do this again.

Instead of the Navy having 11 supercarriers, it can have 6 super carriers and 10 strike carriers...or any number, you pick it but you get my point.

Smaller, slightly fewer aircraft but with greater numbers able to be in many more places make this a sensible option.  Tweaking escort numbers might prove to be a challenge but its doable and since the manning tables for the America class is so much smaller than a super carrier, it should not be a strain on manpower.

9 people hung from a bridge. 14 decapitated heads.

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Airsoft. A false training choice.

I've been reading more and more about people picking up and using airsoft to supplement their training.

Supposedly it gives you inexpensive training on the platform (your rifle) of your choice while being able to go force on force.

I couldn't disagree more.

Airsoft is a fraud, designed by those who have taken away the right to own firearms by their country and its been embraced by those who want to latch onto the latest "fashion" trend instead of being discerning in how they spend their money and wise about how they spend their time.

Trust me on this one.  Don't get roped into the belief that airsoft can be an effective training aid.  Dodging REAL bullets have a feel that airsoft just can't deliver.  If you want to engage in force on force training then I recommend investing in simunitions.  The ballistic performace is similar, as is the platform and the welt that's given if you're struck by one will serve as a reminder of what can happen when your tactics go bad.

Don't be trendy.  Be smart.

Homeland Security in San Fran.

Notice the Golan MRAP.  I thought they were anti-terrorist but it appears that they have a domestic law enforcement mission set. 

Combat Leap.

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Ronald Valdez (left), a corpsman with 1st Platoon, India Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and 30-year-old native of Waipahu, Hawaii, extends a helping hand to Lance Cpl. Patrick Mireles, a team leader and 23-year-old native of Austin, Texas, as Mireles jumps a stream during a security patrol here, April 30, 2012. On the final patrol of their seven-month deployment, the Marines toured the Durzay region of Helmand province's Garmsir district to disrupt possible insurgent activity. After arriving in Garmsir in October 2011, the Marines aided Afghan National Security Forces in assuming lead security responsibility of the district, developing and expanding legitimate Afghan governance by defeating insurgent forces and securing the people of Garmsir. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Reece Lodder)

Argentina gut punches the UK

Wow.

Argentina is alot more serious about the Falklands than the British are willing to admit.  There will be a shooting war over this issue.  The Argentinians are inflamed about this issue and the Brits are so laid back about it that they can't see the warning signs.

Watch the vid again and take in exactly what they're saying.

The UK got bitch slapped.

A blog you should check out.

Hey gents.

Found a blog you should check out...Why the F-35....

Recommended reading for Bill Sweetman, Bob Cox, the entire Aviation Week Staff, Air Power Australia and all the other camp followers that they have.

The Kawasaki C-2...the real A400 Grizzly killer.

Looking like a scaled down C-17 or a slightly larger and more advanced YC-15, the C-2 is hitting the real sweet spot in future tactical airlift.

The A400 was designed to fill that niche but it's missed the mark due to advancements in armor technology and changing defense trends.  The 30 ton payload of the A400 just won't do.  Additionally its price point is going to make it difficult to export.

Now compare that to the C-2.  Its faster than the A400, has a bigger payload, and is zooming toward production and should be on the defense market anytime.  The Japanese just relaxed export restrictions and this airplane should be one of the first beneficiaries of that decision.

The Kawasaki C-2.  The real A400 Grizzly killer. 

British Anti-Air Missile Deployment for the Olympics.

Interesting.

Anti-air missiles...Typhoon Fighters....Amphibious Assault Ships in the harbor....

They're going all out and this is just the stuff we can see.  I'd bet body parts that if the public got wind of whats going on behind the scenes they'd be shitting bricks.

Soldier dies of dog bite.

This is crazy.  via Military.com.

A U.S. soldier died of rabies after being bitten by a dog in Afghanistan, U.S. health authorities said on Thursday.
The 24-year-old male first complained in mid-August 2011 of symptoms including shoulder and neck pain, odd sensations in his hands and fainting, shortly after arriving at Fort Drum, N.Y., for a new military assignment.
"He was lucid and described having received a dog bite on the right hand during January 2011 while deployed to Afghanistan," said the report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tests confirmed that the patient had a type of canine rabies associated with dogs in Afghanistan, the CDC report said.
The soldier's condition swiftly deteriorated after he was hospitalized on Aug. 19.
He suffered a severe brain hemorrhage and after consulting with doctors who said recovery was unlikely, the family withdrew life support. The soldier, whose name was withheld by the CDC, died on Aug. 31.

This makes your heart break.  To survive mines, IED's and bullets and to die of a dog bite?

I'm not about to throw stones at Army medicine, but what happened here?  All the warnings about not befriending stray animals in that hell hole--to report bites and this went unnoticed?

I WASN'T THERE SO I DON'T KNOW.

But this sucks.  This really sucks.

Tank Instructor....

A sexy Israeli Tank Instructor! 

Mythical Fleet. Patrol Boat.

Thought I had forgotten my mythical fleet?

Not a chance.

Next on the list to actual take the fight to the enemy in the Pacific theater and even off the coast of Africa and in other confined waters around the world is a patrol boat.

Working in concert with LCS (properly named Off Shore Patrol Vessels)...LHD's with their embarked helicopters will be squadrons of Austal 30m Fast Patrol Vessels.

Of course we'd need to determine a type of weapons fit for them but that shouldn't be an issue.  The goal here is to act as screening forces for the larger ships and to fill the role of WW2 Torpedo Boats.

Its a hole in our capabilities that we can easily fill.  Visit and Boarding activities can more easily be carried out from these boats and when you consider the crowded water ways in which future combat might take place, an ink bloat strategy on waves might prove helpful.

Less expensive and more plentiful is the way to go.

Mike at New Wars along with the guy talking about buying Fords not Cadillacs have won the day with me.  Stats via Austal.

GENERAL VESSEL DESCRIPTION
Vessel type Fast Patrol Craft
Material Aluminium alloy
Hull form Monohull
Deadweight (max) 16 tonnes
PRINCIPAL DIMENSIONS
Length overall 30.0 metres
Length (waterline) 24.6 metres
Beam (moulded) 6.4 metres
Depth (moulded) 3.2 metres
Draft (approx.) 1.5 metres
PERSONNEL
Crew 11
PERFORMANCE
Range at 10 knots >1000nm
Speed 40 knots
PROPULSION
Main engines 2 x MTU 16V 2000 M92
2 x 1630kW @ 2450rpm
Propulsion 2 x Kamewa SIII waterjets
WEAPONS AND SENSORS
Standard 2 x 0.50 calibre general purpose machine gun mounts
1 x 20mm cannon

General's Club strikes at Navy lust for F/A-XX

via Flight Global.

Retired USMC Lt Gen Emerson Gardner, a former principal deputy director of the Pentagon's Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE), says that there are lots of reasons to be sceptical about the USN's ability to fund the F/A-XX.
"It's not going to happen," Gardner says. "There's not going to be any money there."
Gardner says that the USN will probably not have any money for the programme in the fiscal year 2014 budget. Nor is it likely that the USN will ever come up with the $20 billion to $30 billion in research and development dollars to fund an F/A-XX development programme.
Gardner estimates the total cost of a new F/A-XX programme to be more than $40 billion and yield a maximum of 150 aircraft. The unit cost, he estimates, could be as much as $125 million per jet.
The USN simply does not have the money to pay for F/A-XX. With the USN's ship-building budgets squeezed, Gardner says that naval aviation accounts will likely end up being raided to help pay for submarines and surface ships.
The only place the money can come from is from within the F-35 programme, Gardner says. "There is a community over there that says 'let's just skip the F-35C, let's just keep buying F/A-18s and we'll go and develop this other airplane,'" he says.
"That's very dangerous for the carrier because it makes the carrier irrelevant. They are not going to have first-day capability. I'm absolutely convinced that if you do not have stealth by the year 2022 to 2025 you will be irrelevant."
Lt Gen George Trautman, a former USMC deputy commandant for aviation, concurs.
"It sort of validates the naval aviators' overall lack of commitment to the F-35," he says. "It shows how much they're in bed with Boeing to include a whole host of retired navy aviators who work for Boeing. And it shows, frankly, their lack of commitment to unmanned systems."
Gardner concurs that the USN's relationship with Boeing is playing a role in the service's push towards a new tactical fighter programme.
"I think it's Boeing. There is a huge Boeing lobby in the navy," Gardner says. "That has a lot to do with it."

Trust me on this one gents.

The General's Club has made an estimation and decided that the "hand on the wheel that's driving the Marine Corps" needs to be fortified a bit.

Not one but two retired General's decided to make a statement on the Navy's F/A-XX project and the backing from that service on the F-35C.

You're starting to see the Club members speaking up on matters important to the Marine Corps...the first hint of this came with the Commandant's pronouncement to "stop embarassing the Corps" and now this.

I've stated before that Amos' time in the big chair will not be seen in the same light as General Gray's or Mundy's or Krulak's...this confirms it.

Sucking up to Congress Critters.

Congressional staffers from Capitol Hill tour the inside of an Amphibious Assault Vehicle during a demonstration of the Marine capabilities on Marine Day at Camp Barrett on April 27. More than 440 congressional staffers were bused and flown in on V-22 Ospreys for the event.

Rachael McLachlan, a congressional staffer, receives instructions from a weapons instructor on how to operate the .50 caliber machine gun during a demonstration of the Marine capabilities on Marine Day at Camp Barrett on April 27. The .50 caliber machinegun was one of four weapons that the staffers got to test fire.

Michael Weinstein, a congressional staffer, takes aim with the M 203 grenade launcher during a demonstration of the Marine capabilities on Marine Day at Camp Barrett on April 27.

Heroism vs. Politics.

"Suppose the Navy SEALs had been captured or killed...the down side would have been horrible for him (the President)"

I think that says it all.

Heroism vs. Politics.  Some of us know the difference. 

Perimeter security.

A paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, pulls security during a combined U.S. – Afghan clearing operation April 28, 2012, in Ghazni province, Afghanistan. He is set up in the ruins of an old kalat, or mud-wall building. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod

Russian Airborne Forces to be taught US tactics stateside.

You have got to be shitting me!  From Buisness Insider!

Russian paratroopers will meet up with American forces next month for an unprecedented military exercise in Colorado, according to RT News.
It's the first time Russian service members will be invited into the United States for a joint drill.
A Russian airborne task force will "exercise with U.S. special service weapons," an announcement by Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Aleksandr Kucherenko revealed.
The official purpose of the joint training is to practice airborne tactics and anti-terror operations, such as dropping into a hostile area and conducting a "terrorist camp raid."
"Soldiers of the two countries will hold a tactical airborne operation, including reconnaissance of an imaginary terrorists' camp and a raid," said Kucherenko.

If that isn't bad enough then check out this video.



We have US Marines assigned to the Black Sea Rotational Force teaching our allies, the Georgian military, how to repel an attack by these bastards and now we're gonna teach them our stuff?

Leadership failure.

But wait!  There's more!  While our State Dept and Pentagon drop trousers and grabs ankles this is what the Russians are doing...via Washington Times....

 Russia’s most senior military officer said Thursday that Moscow would preemptively strike and destroy U.S.-led NATO missile defense sites in Eastern Europe if talks with Washington about the system continue to stall.
“A decision to use destructive force preemptively will be taken if the situation worsens,” Russian Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov said at an international missile defense conference in Moscow attended by senior U.S. and NATO officials.
The threat comes as talks about the missile defense system, which the U.S. and its allies insist is aimed at Iranian missiles, appear to have stalled.
“We have not been able to find mutually-acceptable solutions at this point and the situation is practically at a dead end,” Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said.

They play hardball we acted like pussies.

AVX Aircraft Corp. concept is now patented.

via Shepard Media.

AVX Aircraft Company has announced that it has been granted its primary utility patent by the US Patent and Trade Office, covering all aspects of its unique technical functions and configuration, consisting of coaxial rotors and dual ducted fans, the relationship between the rotors and fans, which provide propulsion and directional control, as well as a number of internal controls and components. The company made the announcement 2 May, 2012.

The patent is an important milestone for the company and its technology, AVX Aircraft Company said. ‘Since the main rotors are needed only for lift, the aircraft is able to fly level, similar to a fixed-wing aircraft, resulting in less drag than conventional rotorcraft.  The rear fans act like propellers and provide 30%-50% greater speed than conventional rotorcraft, and also provide directional control which simplifies the function of the rotors.’

AVX believes its technology combines ‘proven technologies to achieve greater aerodynamic efficiency, speed, range, fuel efficiency, hover out of ground effect, ability to operate in hotter temperatures and at higher altitudes, and greater utility than conventional helicopters.  AVX Technology is scalable to any size helicopter and is applicable to commercial and military aircraft.’

Just a feeling but I would bet that this company is on someone's radar as a takeover target.

The concept is stunning.  AVX has the sole rights to it...One of the big boys in the aviation industry is about to claim it for itself.

Remember you heard it here first.