Slingload Ops...

Photos by Spc. Jeanita C. Pisachubbe, HHC, Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Armored Division.

Soldiers from the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade
Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, conduct sling-load operations during the Network Integration Evaluation 12.2 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

57-mm Mk 110 Naval Gun System

baes_034872

The LCS deserves alot of the criticism that's being hurled its way.

I contend that alot of that stems from the ships name.  Littoral Combat Ship.  If it was renamed Multi-Mission Vessel then the heat would be off, mission modules that would be of value NOW could be pushed to the fore and you would see deman skyrocket, as units like SOCOM, Marine Corps, and various Army detachments would all be clamoring to get aboard these ships.

Additionally you'd see many of the do nothing civilian agencies climbing aboard too.  State Dept, USAID, probably DEA and a bunch of others would be trying to get their sea legs instead of doing real work ashore.  But I digress.

One of the real problems with the name Littoral Combat Ship is that the name is driving weapons fit.  Everyone is looking at the small boat issue and seem to believe that the LCS as currently designed will be overwhelmed.

Totally false.

You can see the spec sheet on the 57mm cannon above.  It can reach out to 17,000m and is capable of rapid fire.  It is useful against both high speed surface and air targets...fast boats, helicopters, cruise missiles etc...

Add the 30mm twin mounts that both classes of LCS can carry to the mix and small boats are dog meat.  If we slam the LCS (and I do) then lets be sure we do it for the right reasons.

Its utility and effectiveness against small boats isn't one of those reasons.

The LCS has that threat covered.

GTV fails requirements.

Thanks Jonathan for this article!

via Inside Defense (subscription only).

General Tactical Vehicle's prototype for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program does not meet a 76-inch height requirement, according to Don Howe, GTV senior program director.
The Marine Corps has a 76-inch height requirement so that the vehicle can fit aboard the lower deck of maritime prepositioning ships. Transportability is a top requirement for the Marine Corps when it comes to JLTV's engineering and manufacturing development phase so that the service can return to its expeditionary roots.
However, GTV has an alternative proposition for the service. A third-party analysis has been conducted, and the vehicle can fit in other locations on the ship, Howe told Inside the Navy May 2.
"Pure and simple, from our perspective, these vehicles are 100-percent transportable in accordance with the requirements of the RFP," he said.
GTV formed in 2006 and is a joint venture between AM General and General Dynamics Land Systems. GDLS is a leader in heavy and medium tactical vehicles, and AM General is the incumbent in the humvee vehicle program, Howe stated.

Uh...can we say bullshit?

This is big boy procurement.  You know what the requirements are and you either meet them or you don't.  They gambled by bringing in the Mowag Eagle and its bitten them in the ass.  Trying to play these lawyer games by saying that an "alternative proposition" for the service has been found and the vehicle can fit other locations on the ship is interesting.

Good on you for being creative.

Now carry your sorry ass down the road.  You're a no go.  You did not pass.  You will not be accepted.

Thanks for trying.

CARAT 2012

Marines with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, conduct a clearing exercise in a military operation on urban terrain training area as part of a simulated amphibious assault conducted with Royal Thai marines during Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training Thailand 2012. CARAT is a series of bilateral exercises held annually in Southeast Asia to strengthen relationships and enhance force readiness. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Aaron Glover)

An amphibious assault vehicle departs the beach for the amphibious dock landing ship USS Germantown (LSD 42) during a simulated amphibious assault conducted with Royal Thai marines for Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training Thailand 2012. CARAT is a series of bilateral exercises held annually in Southeast Asia to strengthen relationships and enhance force readiness. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Aaron Glover)

Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Thailand 2012

Marines assigned to 4th Marine Regiment drive their amphibious assault vehicle from the amphibious dock landing ship USS Germantown (LSD 42) during a rehearsal for a joint U.S. and Royal Thai navy beach landing. The Marines and Germantown are participating in the underway phase of Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training Thailand 2012. CARAT is a series of bilateral military exercises between the U.S. Navy and the armed forces of Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Timor Leste joins CARAT for the first time in 2012. (U.S. Navy photo by Ensign Jason M. Tross/Released)

Amphibious assault vehicles assemble on the beach during a simulated amphibious assault conducted with Royal Thai marines for Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Thailand 2012. CARAT is a series of bilateral exercises held annually in Southeast Asia to strengthen relationships and enhance force readiness. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Robert Clowney/Released)

U.S. Marine amphibious assault vehicles depart the beach for the amphibious dock landing ship USS Germantown (LSD 42) during a simulated amphibious assault conducted with Royal Thai marines for Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Thailand 2012. CARAT is a series of bilateral exercises held annually in Southeast Asia to strengthen relationships and enhance force readiness. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Robert Clowney/Released)

Royal Thai and U.S. Marine amphibious assault vehicles land on the beach during a simulated amphibious assault for Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training Thailand 2012. CARAT is a series of bilateral exercises held annually in Southeast Asia to strengthen relationships and enhance force readiness. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Aaron Glover)

The US Army on hill tops.

Snipers with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team provide overwatch for fellow paratroopers in a village below them May 19, 2012, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan. Troops serving in Afghanistan are outfitted with several long-range weapons to increase their combat effectiveness in the country’s wide-open spaces. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod)

A paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team provides overwatch security to fellow paratroopers and Afghan National Security Forces after a firefight May 17, 2012, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan. The agricultural areas surrounding Combat Outpost Giro are a haven for insurgent activities. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod)

VBTP-MR going to Eurosatory 2012.

via DEFESA GLOBAL...

Iveco Defence Vehicles will show at Eurosatory 2012, one of the first production Iveco Veículos de Defesa VBTP-MR (Viatura Blindada de Transporte de Pessoal-Média de Rodas) Guarani amphibian weeled armoured vehicles.

Later this year, the Brazilian Army is to receive the first vehicles of 2044 units procured to Iveco Defence Vehicles Latin America in several variants.

The reason why this vehicle is so interesting to me and why I'm trying to keep track of it is because I believe that it directly affects the Marine Corps Personnel Carrier competition.

Notice the production figures?

2044 units?  Impressively large.  Built to satisfy requirements that are remarkably similar to the USMC's and in my opinion the SuperAV 8x8 is simply an enlarged VBTP-MR.

So what does that mean for our program?  It means that the idea of this becoming a cost shoot out is more and more of a reality.  If Iveco and BAE are able to build parts for the SuperAV 8x8 in Brazil then that should chill out a trading partner that the Obama Administration (and in fairness all free trade hawks) is desperate to please.

I can almost see another Super Tucano type arrangement being established if the SuperAV is chosen.  Parts built in Brazil and BAE assembling the vehicle in Texas.

This is definitely Big Boy procurement.  Can we all say cut throat?

This guy is a piece of work.

First check out this video. 

Watch it twice, maybe three times because they scroll through the info kinda quick....



Then go to BlackFive and read about this "human'...

Slimy.

Con artist.

In need of direct action.

So much for a kind, gentle Democrat Party huh?

The LCS. Time to rebrand it.

Sometimes an organization will produce a product that is so horrible that it should be destroyed.  But sometimes, that horrible product can simply be rebranded and reintroduced to the public.


That's what the Navy should do with the LCS.


First the name is horrible.  Littoral Combat Ship?  I think we can all safely say that the LCS has expanded beyond that simple description.


And lets be honest here.


If you want to fight small boats in the littoral zone, all you need to do is send the Riverines out in CB90's and they'll wipe the floor with them.


So what do we do with the LCS?  First we rename it Multi-Mission Vessel (MMV).  Then we build every one of them we have in the pipeline and then we stop.


At that point we turn our attention 100 percent toward getting mission modules together.


Some advice to the Navy.  You want to get these ships fully funded and into the fleet like yesterday?


YOU GET SOCOM'S MISSION MODULE UP AND RUNNING PRONTO!


If you have to assign half these ships to supporting SOCOM then you do it!  That will get you funding, it will make your ships high profile and it will get you positive press.


Next up (in my way of thinking) would be to get mission modules running for the Marines and certain Army units....Besides running these ships around the world for SOCOM, you team them up with AFRICOM to support partnership missions there.


That will get you positive interagency press.  Which brings me to the next module.  Humanitarian assistance/Inter Agency module.


Have you noticed the trend here?  You're developing personnel modules.  Not warfighting modules, but in essence support modules.  This will get your ships out to the fleet quicker, will make them useful sooner and will create demand that will help kick start this poorly handled program.


Once SOCOM, the Marines, Army, Inter Agency and Humanitarian Assistance modules are done, then you can accelerate the work on the surface warfare, anti-mine warfare and land attack modules.


But you've got to rebrand this thing first.  The LCS can be saved, will be useful and can contribute to the fleet.  

If you do it my way, it'll be welcomed with open arms not cries of WTF!

Hatfields & McCoys

Really looking forward to seeing this show.

SC-MAGTF APS-12.

Photos by Staff Sgt. Jemssy Alvarez
U.S. Marines from Security Cooperation Task Force African Partnership Station 12 (SCTF APS-12), ground combat element (GCE), clear a simulated enemy compound during a mechanized patrol through Combat Town May 21, 2012, aboard Marine Corps. Base Camp Lejeune, N.C. This training was the first time that the GCE's rifle platoon conducted combat simulations with their mechanized counterparts since SCTF APS-12 was activated.

Rilfleman's Creed

Rilfleman's Creed 1

The long road home...

United States Marine Corps casket bearers navigate rocky terrain to deliver the remains of Lance Cpl. Abraham Tarwoe, of Providence, R.I., to his gravesite during a memorial service in Flehla, Liberia, May 17. Tarwoe, who was born in Liberia, died from wounds suffered in combat in Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 12. At the time of his death, Tarwoe was deployed from 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, Camp Lejuene, N.C. The casket bearers were all members of Operation Onward Liberty, a U.S. military mentor mission that is building capacity within the Armed Forces of Liberia.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by 1st Lt. Mark Lazane)

My heart goes out to his family.  But while they grieve they should be proud.  They raised a young man that was brave enough to do what few in his adopted country would.  First he volunteered to join the US Marine Corps, then he went to combat.

Not to sound morbid, but I'm also proud of my Marine Corps.

They kept the promise.

The US Marines...of all nationalities...from all walks of life.

We're all bomb makers now.

Knowing how to build a bomb is one thing.

Classifying common house hold goods as bomb making components is something else though.  Check out this story from Military.com.

Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, who was AWOL from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, bought pressure cookers, clocks, wires and other bomb-making components at a Dallas-area store in the early morning of July 26, according to surveillance footage and receipts shown to jurors. Abdo then paid $400 for a taxi ride to Killeen, Texas, just outside Fort Hood, arriving about 3:30 a.m. at a motel, the cabdriver testified.
After police acting on a tip detained Abdo at the motel July 27, they say they found the items in his room and backpack. He was stopped just hours before completing assembly of the bomb, showing he "intended to commit mass murder," prosecutor Gregg Sofer told jurors earlier Tuesday during opening statements.

Don't take me the wrong way.

I have absolutely no sympathy for this son of a bitch.

He can fry in hell and I hope they fill his IV with Drano.

But when did clocks, wires and pressure cookers become bomb making components?  In some ways I think the terrorist have won.

If Batman is gay, I'm scarred for life.

Scarred I tell ya!

Check out this from the Daily Mail...read the rest at their site.

But at Kapow Comic Convention in London on Sunday, he revealed that an existing character - who was previously assumed to be straight - will become ‘one of our most prominent gay characters’, according to comic blog BleedingCool.com.

Geez.

I mean seriously?

DC Comics can be trendy all they want but if they have Batman come out as being gay then the pushback will be a something to see.    

Batman is the guy at the top of the page...not the dude below....

The Heritage Foundation gets "medieval" on F-35 critics!

Check out this part....

Unfortunately, forces that never wanted the nation’s pilots to have this aircraft in the first place are now trying to pull a bait and switch. They are saying that there is too much concurrency, and they want to slow down production of the JSF. This would drive up the cost per unit of each JSF and probably force some of our allies to cut the number of planes they have ordered. These cuts would further drive up cost, creating a vicious cycle of cost increases.
The clear goal here is to slow down production and drive up costs in a spiral that will eventually allow opponents of military modernization and proper readiness to call for killing the program altogether. Congress should not allow this to happen.

Let's see...how can I put this?

Heritage said it PROFESSIONALLY.

Heritage said it in a POLITICALLY CORRECT way.

But they didn't say it plainly.

The critics want this program killed for various reasons.  From Sweetman wanting to save the European fighter industry, to APA dreaming of the F-22 being offered for export, to Cox wanting to simply stick it in the eye of Lockheed Martin (I don't understand this guy most of all) to the other cheerleaders in their camps that just want pats on the back because they're taking what was once the "popular" position.


But the problem is different now.  Slowing production will increase costs, not decrease them and the BIG issue with that is this.  THE PROGRAM OFFICE IS FALLING FOR THE STUPIDITY!  Time to get this plane in production and get on with the business of defending our country.

They're dealing with a Python...

I'm amazed at the number of invasive snakes that are being found in the US...they're calling it a big black snake?  They better think again.  I know a Python or a Boa when I see it.  I wonder when the puppies and kittens start disappearing!  More pics and the story is here.

LCS2... Return of the Fast Troop Transport.

I keep coming back to this position.

The future of the LCS and in particular the LCS2 is as a troop transport.

The latest example is the Riverine deployment with the Marine Expeditionary Unit to Thailand.  Unless I'm missing my guess, Marine Corps assets were left on the beach to make room for the Riverines.

That's unsat.

In my post on the Riverine deployment, I also stated that amphibs are going to become overwhelmed with requests from different units to either occupy them completely or to share room with the MEU.

Imagine a tasking that has a MEU(-), Riverines, SOCOM and maybe even a detachment from 160th or Navy Spec Ops Helo taking up deck space.

That is trouble in a handbag.

If you could designate a certain number of LCS2's to the transport/support mission it might make the future a bit easier.  It would certainly be cheaper than buying more big deck amphibs.

I would recommend studies be conducted to see if an enlarged ramp can be fitted to these ships and perhaps improved small boat handling facilities.

Either way this problem isn't going away and the Marine Corps BETTER be prepared to defend amphibs...better be prepared to justify the MEU rotation schedule and better be prepared to fight these battles old skool style.

They've kept a handle on it but the budget battles WILL heat up.  Whether we like it or not.

RivRon 1 on deployment.

NOTE:  I've been calling for these guys to get off the beach and get out on deployment and they finally have.  Despite the Big Navy's confusion, one thing is obvious.  Amphibs are not only few in number but are also going to be high demand resources.  The Marine Corps better be prepared to wall off its requirement or you'll see pilfering from SOCOM, Riverines and other Units.

Gulf of Thailand (May 21, 2012) U.S. Navy Operations Specialist 1st Class Steve Vaillancourt, assigned to Riverine Squadron (RIVRON) 1, signals Royal Thai navy Chief Udorn Harin, of the Royal Thai navy Riverine Patrol Regiment's Riverine Squadron 1, during a riverine training exercise for Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Thailand 2012. CARAT is a series of bilateral exercises held annually in Southeast Asia to strengthen relationships and enhance force readiness. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Daniel J. Calderón/Released)

GULF OF THAILAND (May 21, 2012) A Royal Thai navy Riverine Patrol Regiment and U.S. Navy Sailors assigned to Riverine Squadron (RIVRON) 1 participate in riverine operation exercises aboard a special operations craft-riverine (SOC-R) during Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Thailand 2012. CARAT is a series of bilateral exercises held annually in Southeast Asia to strengthen relationships and enhance force readiness. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Aaron Glover/Released)

GULF OF THAILAND (May 21, 2012) A Royal Thai navy Riverine Patrol Regiment and U.S. Navy Sailors assigned to Riverine Squadron (RIVRON) 1 participate in riverine operation exercises aboard a special operations craft-riverine (SOC-R) during Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Thailand 2012. CARAT is a series of bilateral exercises held annually in Southeast Asia to strengthen relationships and enhance force readiness. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Aaron Glover/Released)

....the fighting became hand to hand....

You have to read the description of the battle...