7 Marines killed in Nevada. Military training is inherently dangerous.

Consider this.  In one training accident more Marines were lost stateside than in the last two weeks (maybe longer) in Afghanistan.  

Military training is inherently dangerous.

This will happen to a SWAT Team in the US one day.

I haven't heard of this happening in the US and the Law Enforcement Officials in this GIF appear to be from a different country but you can bet it will happen here.

Austal sees it slipping away.

Question.  Where is the Independence?  The USS Freedom for all its warts and new paint job is zooming to Singapore to begin its first overseas deployment.

But Independence is missing.  We haven't seen her.  And now we have this from DoD Buzz.

It appears the U.S. Navy is preparing to buy only one of the two variants of the Littoral Combat Ship after 2015, according to a Defense News report.
Vice Adm. Tom Copeman, the head of Naval Surface Forces, issued a classified report at the end of 2012 called “Vision for the 2025 Surface Fleet” in which he recommended a “re-evaluation of the next flights of LCSs — beyond the 24 ships now delivered, under construction, on order or with contract options,” wrote Chris Cavas of Defense News.
The Navy had planned to build 52 LCS ships. If the services chooses to cut that order in half, the service will likely purchase only one of the LCS variants — either the Freedom-class or Independence-class designs, according to the senior Navy officials that Defense News cited.

If I'm right and the end is near for the Independence then Austal should kick itself.

The Independence with its huge flight deck, tri-hull design and futuristic looks has been the darling of the blogging community and military theorists.  When people were trying to add missions sets to the LCS class it was with the Independence in mind.

Now?

Not so much.

The damn ship can't get out of port!

If Lockheed Martin wins this battle, if the Navy picks the Freedom class over the Independence and if this report is true then we are looking at a defense leviathan.  Lockheed Martin will (if they win in the JLTV and MPC contests) become an even bigger defense giant.  Right now they're looking like the first defense mega-corporation.

One or two smart acquisitions and there will not be a defense project in the free world that could go forward without their participation.

Pic of the day. 31st MEU. A walk in the park.

Pic of the day. RAF Sea King Search and Rescue Helicopter.

K-MAX Mission Extended Indefinitely in Afghanistan

Northrop Grumman MAV-L

CDR Salamander is right.

CDR Salamander had this to say about the above vid...

As a watched this video, all I could think of is - they just got back from a 5-month deployment.
Look at the condition of the ships. Look at the uniforms and general squared away nature of the Sailors.
I'm sorry - but appearances matter and can tell you a lot about the rest of a Navy; just ask the Imperial Russian Navy after the Russian-Japanese War a bit over a century ago.
I don't know about you - but it makes me want a whole bunch of Chinese BM1s.

I had a few more take aways....

* Yeah.  Their ships look better coming off deployment than ours do heading out.
* Did you catch the belligerence concerning the disputed islands?  There will be trouble in this region soon.
* Did you catch the Officer sporting 782 gear and a Battle Rifle while in dress uniform?  That's old skool stuff.  I mean that's what the Marine Corps did during WW2.  That's an indication of a martial spirit that I fear we're losing.  Bad news for us.

Sal is right.  Appearances matter and as much as I hate to admit it, the Chinese Navy is looking good.  Warrior good.

Jungle Experts, Mountain Leaders, Desert Specialist but no regionally aligned units.

Jungle Expert Patch.

Mountain Leader School Logo (Summer and Winter package).

via Defense News.

Some of those BCTs will become regionally aligned brigades (RAB), which will train and deploy in support of regional combatant commanders. The first such brigade, the 2nd BCT of the 1st Infantry Division, will align with the AFRICOM command in 2013.
While the 2/1 deployment will be a pilot test, some leaders are concerned about how ready the force is to start conducting training, advising and other “soft” missions on such short notice.
In remarks at a Nov. 27 Special Operations conference in Alexandria, Va., hosted by the Defense Strategies Institute, Lt. Gen. Charles Cleveland, commander of the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Command, said that while he supports the RAB concept, “I have cautioned the Army about all of those things like [teaching soldiers] language. It’s expensive.”
Cleveland added that in discussions with Army leadership, “I have told them that the first thing you need to do is increase your … exercise funds so you can increase multinational training events,” since building those relationships on the ground will be key to the success of the program.

The entire article is worth reading.  It initially concerns the draw down but quickly turns to the Army's future.

This is one trend that the Marine Corps should rethink and definitely NOT follow.

Left unsaid in this particular article (but not others) is the fact that the Army will essentially begin having specialist units that are capable of operating in a particular environment to great effect  but will be much less capable in others.

That is not how you create a force that is capable of landing and winning anywhere they are sent.

Regionally assigned units will eventually lead to weapons and equipment specialization that the Marine Corps cannot afford, and should not desire.  Instead of following the US Army's example we should continue on our current course and if possible enhance those capabilities by taking a page from the Royal Marines.

We already have Mountain Leaders, Scout Swimmers and other specialist throughout the Marine Corps.  We should expand that to create Officer and Enlisted area specialist in the form of Jungle Experts, Mountain Leaders, Desert Specialist and Urban Specialist (to give each battalion or division experts in fighting in different locations) but also create schooling for regional experts that will advise when fighting in different locales.

Obviously this would follow the same pattern but instead of focusing on the HOW to fight in certain areas that your Jungle, Mountain, Desert and Urban Specialist would have, the Regional Experts would be aware of the human terrain.  They would receive the expensive language training, cultural awareness and other skills necessary for our forces to fight, influence and (forgive me Chesty) not offend the people whose land we happen to be fighting in.

Regional units no.  Jungle, Mountain, Desert, Urban and Regional Specialist Marines?  Yes!

LMAO

H. H. Holmes. America's first serial killer.

via Wikipedia.

Holmes purchased a lot across from the drugstore, where he built his three-story, block-long "Castle"—as it was dubbed by those in the neighborhood. It was opened as a hotel for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, with part of the structure used as commercial space. The ground floor of the Castle contained Holmes's own relocated drugstore and various shops, while the upper two floors contained his personal office and a maze of over 100 windowless rooms with doorways opening to brick walls, oddly-angled hallways, stairways to nowhere, doors openable only from the outside, and a host of other strange and labyrinthine constructions. Holmes repeatedly changed builders during the construction of the Castle, so only he fully understood the design of the house.[3]
During the period of building construction in 1889, Holmes met Benjamin Pitezel, a carpenter with a past of lawbreaking, whom Holmes exploited as a stooge for his criminal schemes. A district attorney later described Pitezel as Holmes's "tool... his creature."[11]
After the completion of the hotel, Holmes selected mostly female victims from among his employees (many of whom were required as a condition of employment to take out life insurance policies, for which Holmes would pay the premiums but was also the beneficiary), as well as his lovers and hotel guests. He tortured and killed them.[8] Some were locked in soundproof bedrooms fitted with gas lines that let him asphyxiate them at any time. Other victims were locked in a huge soundproof bank vault near his office, where they were left to suffocate.[6] The victims' bodies were dropped by secret chute to the basement,[3]where some were meticulously dissected, stripped of flesh, crafted into skeleton models, and then sold to medical schools. Holmes also cremated some of the bodies or placed them in lime pits for destruction. Holmes had two giant furnaces as well as pits of acid, bottles of various poisons, and even a stretching rack.[3] Through the connections he had gained in medical school, he sold skeletons and organs with little difficulty.

I heard an interview on this guy last and night and he's a piece of work.

They estimate that he could have killed up to 200 people.

He built his kill house in Chicago just before the World's Fair.

He lured women to his maze filled house and also killed a few men and at least 3 children.

Lastly, this bastard was so vile that he had a woman placed on a stretching table, impregnated her and continued to stretch her so he could see if that would make a taller race of people.

The documentary,  H. H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer, is something I'm definitely gonna have to see.  And if this wasn't bad enough, the FBI believes that at any one time there are at least 35 to 50 serial killers active in the US.

A little side dish.  Check out this cracked article on serial killers who are free right now.

Israeli self propelled gun competition and Lockheed Martin.

Thanks for the article Jonathan!

via Israeli Defense

Revealed: US company Lockheed Martin, KMW of Germany and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have recently signed a cooperation agreement for joint production for the IDF, in the framework of the Israeli Artillery Corps’ next self-propelled gun, named Cardom.
The development began in the past few days after a decision was made in IDF Ground Forces Command to begin the replacement of the IDF’s self-propelled gun layout, already during the next five years. The IDF is interested in taking the M-109 cannon (“Doher") out of service, after being in IDF service for nearly 40 years. The Ground Forces Command is interested in a 52 caliber autonomous cannon with a 155mm barrel, high rate of fire, and a crew which is as small as needed for its operation.
In the framework of the new tender, IAI’s Land Division presented the new platform to the IDF. According to the agreement that was formulated in the past few days, the sel—propelled gun being offered to the IDF will be based on KMW’s AGM cannon, which is assembled on the body of an MLRS rocket launcher by Lockheed Martin. The production will be carried out by Lockheed Martin in the US, so that the project can be funded by US foreign defense aid.

Slowly but surely Lockheed Martin is dipping its toe into the armored vehicle market.

With carefully selected partners.  Partners that have a track record of success and combat proven vehicles, Lockheed Martin is making inroads.

The teaming with KMW and the teams selection of the AGM is a stroke of genius.  The concept is simply brilliant.  The idea of developing a gun module that is capable of being mounted on trucks, wheeled armored vehicles, tracked armored vehicles and even ships is mind blowing.

I like the concept and the project/contest is worth watching.  Also interesting is the fact that Israel is sticking with mechanized artillery and not switching to towed versions.  Israeli war fighting doctrine seems to have rejected the idea of light weight, wheel based formations in favor of heavy mechanized infantry units.  I like it.

French running into Afghan tactics in Mali.

In the afternoon, during the progression towards the South, an AMX 10 RC was hit by an explosion, killing the pilot and injuring three other crew members, including two seriously. These quickly evacuated by medical helicopter, were supported by the surgical unit stationed in Tessalit transportable. Any terrorist has been detected in this area during the action. Two caches of weapons and food were located and destroyed earlier in the day.

This operation, like all those carried out since February 18 in the Adrar des Ifoghas aims to seek out and destroy terrorist groups and to dismantle their sanctuaries.

French soldier killed in this operation is a corporal from 1 ^st Marine Infantry Regiment (1 ^st RIMa) Angoulême.

Sad and unfortunate.

Its disturbing that we haven't successfully demonstrated an ability to "kill" all IED's in our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Mine warfare (by a different name) has been a serious issue since WW1 and looks to continue to be for the near future at least.

Quite honestly I'm waiting for it to be used by sleeper cells against a civilian population soon.  If that is ever done and if it is successful then we could see entire regions brought to a standstill.

Looks like ammo is coming online and the price moderating.

Golden Saber for 26.99?  Not good but not bad either.  Much more like it.  A little lower and it'll be back to normal.

If this doesn't make you misty you have no heart.

Pic of the day. Ambassador Class

N. Korean Artillery Drill Pics....

Awesome pics!  Thanks Dwi!

This might be the alternative to Google Reader that we've been looking for.

Smashing Reader.  It goes live in about a 5 days but the preview looks promising.

The Special Ops and CIA's secret airforces.

The craziness of today's military is that it relies to a surprising degree on contractors.

From food service to laundry to mechanics, everywhere you go in a war zone you'll find civilians performing jobs and being paid.  Quite well actually.

Its a win win for both sides and I won't get into the pluses or minuses of the situation.  Suffice it to say that without contractors the US Army alone would probably number 2 million plus troops instead of the 675,000 that it currently has.

But you're wondering what the point is.  Well if you look at the photo above you'll see a Bell Helicopter 214ST in the background.  I laughed out loud when I saw it and to be quite honest I said to myself that Blackwater/Xe was back in business for Uncle Sam.  But they aren't the only guys that perform missions in country for both Special Ops and the CIA.

close up of a 214ST

Ever heard of Evergreen Aviation Services?  They're sorta like the new Air America with a better public relations bent.  I found an old article that lays everything out pretty well but it still applies and is worth reading.  It can be found here but a tidbit (again: the article is from 2010).

Last week, the Army posted extensive, detailed information about the contract, which offers a unique window into how U.S. forces use contractors, even those with histories like Presidential Airways, which was featured in a CBS News "60 Minutes" segment in February and rebroadcast last night. In 2004, a Presidential Airways plane operating under the name "Blackwater 61" crashed on its way to Farah, Afghanistan. It had flown way off course, and its pilots had little experience navigating Afghanistan's terrain, and the plane lacked equipment to help searchers find its wreckage. At least one passenger survived the crash for several hours. After the crash, the government suspended the company for a month. But then it awarded them another contract, under which military personnel are flown throughout the country today.
The newest contract supports both the Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command - Afghanistan, pronounced SIFF-SOCK-AY, and the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force- Afghanistan (CJSOTF-A).
CJSOTF-A is the task force governing "white" special operations forces in Afghanistan, although black SOF units and task forces often use the white equivalent for administrative cover.
The Army's work order provides a list of the 30 locations that the planes will transport to and from personnel, including Bagram, Khandahar, the Sharana forward operation base in Patika, Afghanistan and Maimana, which serves as a base for missions near the Turkmenistan border.

&

Aside from Presidential Airways, other interesting companies have submitted bids, including Oregon-based Evergreen International Aviation, which has performed "cover" services for the CIA. It has worked extensively with the CIA in the past, and current operations have given rise to the notion that they function as the modern day equivalent of the agency's "Air America" front company, which was owned entirely by the CIA. (Evergreen is in private hands.) In recent years, Evergreen has transported CIA personnel to and from remote sites in the Horn of Africa. It does not seem to have been involved in the CIA's rendition programs. It is among the companies who are secretly authorized to refuel and land at any U.S-controlled base around the world.
Then there's the "Defense Applications USA Corporation," which does not have a website and whose contact person has an AOL e-mail. Its address suggests a location literally down the street from Disneyland in California.
Herndon, VA-based DFG Global's website says virtually nothing about what it does, which means it does a lot of work for secret projects.

The contact e-mail is literally "info@dfgglobal.com." FMN International has a Pennsylvania Avenue address and, at least, a website that acknowledges the type of work is performs.

But still there is nothing ground breaking about this.   I just found it interesting that one of the CIA's and Special Ops 'black' helicopters would appear so readily in a DoD photo. Especially considering that the companies involved try so hard to separate their aircraft that work for the government from their purely civilian air fleet and even go so far as to not list them on galleries on their websites, if they even have websites.

Umoe Mandal AS

Major Hat Tip to Lee for pointing me to this company.  I so wish the Navy had simply bought some Skjold Corvettes instead of the LCS.