Canada confirms Super Hornet purchase!

Thanks to Super Rhino for the link!

via UPI

March 15 (UPI) -- Canada's government formalized its plans to purchase Super Hornet fighter jets from the United States when it issued a letter of intent to the U.S. on Tuesday.
The letter follows months of negotiations between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, U.S. defense officials and Boeing representatives. Canada's request calls for the procurement of 18 F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft.
Trudeau's government began exploring a potential Super Hornet buy in November 2016 as a temporary solution for replacing the country's aging fighter fleet, opting to distance itself from the Lockheed Martin-led F-35 program.
While Canada maintains the procurement is a temporary solution until an open and transparent competition can be initiated to replace the country's CF-18s, defense officials say the decision marks notable progress toward a permanent replacement.
"Today's announcement shows important progress toward getting the brave women and men of the Canadian Armed Forces the equipment they need to protect Canadians and Canadian values around the world," Canadian National Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan said in a press release. "We will assess whether an interim Super Hornet fleet purchase will help ensure Canada remains a credible and dependable ally for many years to come."
Canada's next step for the procurement will involve further negotiations with Boeing and other suppliers to develop an official proposal. The country expects an official response from the U.S. in the early fall of 2017.

Wow.  Boeing did it.  Congrats to them and Canada.  Consensus is just everyone thinking alike.  It's good to break away from the herd.

Open Comment Post. March 15, 2017

US Navy's 7th Fleet is filled with corrupt current/former officers...

Thanks to Dave for the link!

Story here.  No tidbits, no previews.  Go read it over at the Washington Post.

Be prepared though.

If I'm reading this right then we have a serious problem.  Fat Leonard did more than just push a criminal enterprise.  My guess (and officials aren't saying) is that our entire playbook was practically laid open.  This was about more than "lucrative" defense contracts.

I sincerely believe this was a covert operation.  Fat boy should be in Gitmo undergoing "enhanced interrogation" by bald farm boys with porn moustaches that inject Test/Tren/Diabol stacks and spend four hours a day in the weight room...and then we need to find his friends.

This is bad.  Real bad.

The US Army is getting serious about peer threats?

Thanks to John for the pic!

John added this in his note to me...

So, I'm driving to the range with some of my guys and see this being tricked around. One of the kids goes, oh I've never seen a tank like that...I chuckled and said rethink what it is, and after 20ish mins of failed ROCV, I told them it was a SA-15 TOR radar vehicle, Russian.

They asked why we would have that, I told them from the looks, it's not the real deal, just a range target heading to AP hill for some scouts to hit with Arty.

This shit makes my heart sing.

No not the issue with the vehicle.  I'll touch on that in a second.  What has me jazzed is that it's still going on.  Staff NCO's are still training their devil pups in the stuff that counts.  They're training them to meet the future battlefield and win.  No distraction by things they have no power to control (and did not participate in) but a focus on getting better everyday.  Threat vehicle identification is a skill that every Marine MUST master.   This little "school circle" on the way to the range is just plain awesome shit!

But back to the vehicle.  The idea of putting targets on range that simulate threat vehicles is just plain common sense but we've gotten away from that.  Why?  I don't know.  Buying surplus Russian/Chinese tanks from "friendly" nations (of course at a price they couldn't say no to or even in trade for US tech) or even acquiring facsimiles shouldn't be too difficult a task.

Shooting at tires or piles of lumber isn't training.  It's just target practice. Target has a place but so does shoot/move/communicate on a training range! Having said that it appears that the Army is making strides already.  They've turned to on engaging peer threats.  Let's hope the USMC is doing the same.

Japan's Izumo Helicopter Carrier heads to the S. China Sea.

via SCMP.com

Japan plans to dispatch its largest warship on a three-month tour through the South China Sea beginning in May, three sources said, in its biggest show of naval force in the region since the second world war.
China claims almost all the disputed waters and its growing military presence has fuelled concern in Japan and the West, with the United States holding regular air and naval patrols to ensure freedom of navigation.
The Izumo helicopter carrier, commissioned only two years ago, will make stops in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka before joining the Malabar joint naval exercise with Indian and US naval vessels in the Indian Ocean in July.

It appears that the Japanese are slowly but surely heading back to their imperialists roots. If that is the case, I wonder what that means for the region and the world.  Is a militarized and aggressive Japan (to counter the Chinese) as big a worry as many in the region feel?  Is a re-invigorated Japanese military more worrisome than the Chinese?

China setting up naval base 4 miles from Camp Lemonnier

via NY Times

The two countries keep dozens of intercontinental nuclear missiles pointed at each other’s cities. Their frigates and fighter jets occasionally face off in the contested waters of the South China Sea.

With no shared border, China and the United States mostly circle each other from afar, relying on satellites and cybersnooping to peek inside the workings of each other’s war machines.

But the two strategic rivals are about to become neighbors in this sun-scorched patch of East African desert. China is constructing its first overseas military base here — just a few miles from Camp Lemonnier, one of the Pentagon’s largest and most important foreign installations.

With increasing tensions over China’s island-building efforts in the South China Sea, American strategists worry that a naval port so close to Camp Lemonnier could provide a front-row seat to the staging ground for American counterterror operations in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.

“It’s like having a rival football team using an adjacent practice field,” said Gabriel Collins, an expert on the Chinese military and a founder of the analysis portal China SignPost. “They can scope out some of your plays. On the other hand, the scouting opportunity goes both ways.”

Established after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Camp Lemonnier is home to 4,000 personnel. Some are involved in highly secretive missions, including targeted drone killings in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, and the raid last month in Yemen that left a member of the Navy SEALs dead. The base, which is run by the Navy and abuts Djibouti’s international airport, is the only permanent American military installation in Africa.

Beyond surveillance concerns, United States officials, citing the billions of dollars in Chinese loans to Djibouti’s heavily indebted government, wonder about the long-term durability of an alliance that has served Washington well in its global fight against Islamic extremism.

Just as important, experts say, the base’s construction is a milestone marking Beijing’s expanding global ambitions — with potential implications for America’s longstanding military dominance.

“It’s a huge strategic development,” said Peter Dutton, professor of strategic studies at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, who has studied satellite imagery of the construction.

This is interesting.

Everyone believes this has to do with our base, but I'm thinking it has to do with protecting Chinese investments in Africa and a hope they have to start influencing events in the Middle East.

I do wonder though.  Is it possible that the Chinese see Africa as the new frontier?  A place that they can colonize?

Open Comment Post. March 14, 2017

The F-35's EOTS is obsolete to the point of being behind current Sniper/Lantirn Pods.

via Defense News.

Instead of relying on weapons like the GBU-49 with a built-in ability to prosecute moving targets, many combat aircraft employ electro-optical targeting systems, or EOTS, with “lead-laser guidance” — which calculates how far a weapon should travel beyond the target’s current location in order to hit it. However, the F-35 EOTS was designed when that tech was still in its its infancy, so while the system can find a moving target, lock onto it and track it, an F-35 pilot still has to predict where a target will move and aim there, Pleus said. 

The GBU-49, however, has lead-laser capability built into its front end, so it doesn’t need to rely on the EOTS system for that data, Pleus said. “All it requires is a laser spot on the moving target and the bomb itself will produce the lead necessary to hit the moving target.” 

From the same article...

 The GBU-49 wasn’t originally included in the Block 3F weapons loadout, which, along with new software, will make the joint strike fighter fully mission-capable. The service decided to incorporate it within the last six to nine months, said Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus, director of the Air Force’s F-35 integration office. 
“The ability to hit a moving target is a key capability that we need in current close-air support fight, and the GBU-49 is a great solution for the F-35 and, frankly, for all of our legacy platforms to hit these moving targets,” he said during a February interview. 

So what does this mean?  It means that our assertion that the F-35's EOTS is obsolete is confirmed.  It means that every plane produced before Block 4 will require massive upgrades.  It also explains why Singapore and others are delaying their buys of the airplane.  It just isn't as good as the fanboys want you to believe.

Pakistan deploys a brigade of troops to protect Saudi Arabia.

Thanks to Bill for the link!

via Middle East Eye.net

The Pakistan army is sending a brigade of combat troops to shore up Saudi Arabia’s vulnerable southern border from reprisal attacks mounted by the Houthis in Yemen, according to senior security sources.
The brigade will be based in the south of the Kingdom, but will only be deployed inside its border, the sources told Middle East Eye. "It will not be used beyond Saudi borders," one said.
It is the latest twist in a brutal and devastating two-year war, which has killed more than 10,000 people in Yemen, injured over 40,000 and brought the impoverished nation to the verge of famine.
Both sides have been accused of war crimes and starving civilians trapped in the carnage.
The war was launched by Saudi Arabia and its Arab coalition allies after the Houthis overran Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, and the southern port of Aden and ousted the Saudi-backed president, Abd Rabbuh Hadi.
Increasingly, the Houthis have been retaliating with cross-border missile strikes on targets deep inside the kingdom.
Last month the Houthis claimed to have hit a military camp near al-Mazahimiyah near Riyadh with what they called "a precision long-distance ballistic missile". The Saudis denied the claim.
On 31 January, a missile killed 80 soldiers on a base run jointly by the Saudis and Emiratis on Zuqar island in the Red Sea, according to reports in Arabic media. The Saudis did not confirm nor deny the strike.
In October a missile was shot down about 65 km from Mecca, although the Houthis denied targeting the holy city.

Paper Tigers.

Saudi Arabia and its GCC buddies are all paper tigers.

How bad are things for the Saudi Arabian armed forces when they have to call on Pakistan to provide troops to help protect its borders?

Has the Saudi Royal Family ever looked this vulnerable in the past 20 years?  I might be reading this wrong but they look ripe for a "color revolution" or to be overthrown by Islamic hardliners.

Silencers all around for USMC infantry...pic of one caught in the wild with 3/5!

Thanks to John for the pic!

Those experiments with 3/5 must be a sight to behold.  It appears that silencers are being issued to every swinging dick in the line companies and they're getting a good workout.

Knight Armament is the "test bed" model but I hope the USMC looks for lighter, more compact options.  The crazy thing?  The more you try and lighten up the AR style battle rifle the more stuff you end up adding to it to make it more effective.

Regardless this is good news.  Glad to see the grunts getting a little love.

101st has been cut to the point of almost being in cadre status

Thanks to Camp for the link!

via Fox News.

One month into the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S. military conducted the longest combat air assault in history, with roughly 4,000 soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division going deep into enemy territory at night in Mosul. Three years later, the division would carry out its last brigade-size air assault in combat during Operation Swarmer, also in Iraq.
Today, many are questioning whether operations of that magnitude could be conducted after budget cuts have stripped the nation’s premier air assault division of its helicopters.
Fox News traveled to Kentucky’s Fort Campbell, home to the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, for exclusive interviews and to see first-hand how cuts have hurt military readiness. Officials described how the storied division is painfully overstretched.
“We used to have two aviation brigades here, over 200 aircraft, and now we are down to just one aviation brigade and slightly over 100 aircraft,” said Col. Craig Alia, commander of the division’s combat aviation brigade and a veteran of three deployments to Afghanistan.
Asked if he could quickly deploy and conduct a brigade-sized air assault similar to the ones in Iraq, Alia admitted, “We could not. We don’t have the crews to do it.”

Wow.

In an earlier post I said the the 101st was the forgotten Army division but I didn't know it was this bad.

Are they just keeping the Air Assault School House fully staffed?

You do know the implications of this don't you?  The US Army has two of the three options for forcible entry.  The Marine Corps covers amphibious assault, the Army does airborne assault via its 82nd Airborne and air assault with the 101st.

In essence the Army bean counters have taken away one of those options.  It either amphibious assault or airborne assault or bust.  The Pentagon has talked about taking on risk during the years of sequestration but never did I think they would hazard the country in this way.  This is stunning.

Open Comment Post. March 13, 2017.

Another Frank Capezzuto III illustration!

Near Future LAV by Frank Capezzutto III

Check out this guys fantastic art here!

Did the F-35 Program Manager just indicate that the Advanced Super Hornet is a go?

General Bogdan was in Australia making the usual sales pitch about the F-35. What he had to say about the US Navy and its mix of F-35's and Advanced Super Hornets is beyond interesting...I think it reaches into the area of "foretelling".  Check this out via Defence Connect.

The second portion of the task, said Lt Gen Bogdan, is largely focused on the US Navy.

"The US Navy has always had a plan to use both the super-hornet and the F-35 C together on their large deck carriers. They have always said that both the Super Hornet and the C model would be complementary to each other. That hasn't changed," Lt Gen Bogdan said.

"The question that was asked, and the specific answer we're trying to give the new administration is, ‘What is the right mix of F-35 C's and advanced Super Hornets on large deck carriers now and in the future?’ And that investigation is ongoing."

Lt Gen Bogdan was quick to state that this question should not be of concern for Australia.
"I think the subtle piece that's important here, especially for Australia is that, that investigation and that set of questioning, and that tasking is nothing to do with A models or B models," Lt Gen Bogdan said.

"There is absolutely no intention at this point in time, to change the programme of record on the A model or the B model. This was a unique question about the C model, about the mix of aeroplanes on an aircraft carrier, and about the advanced super-hornet and the F-35 C.

"So, from that perspective those are very reasonable questions that the new administration asked, and we're setting out to answer them – neither question has been answered yet.

"I can tell you on the affordability one, after doing all the work that I did I gave you a little preview of the movie here, I think an US$85 million aeroplane can be lower than that, for an A model.

"I think less than an US$85 million aeroplane is probably achievable, and you'll see that in some of the results that I plan to brief to the department."

This is beyond interesting!

Is it me or did the F-35 program manager just tell the world that "yeah the Navy is gonna buy Advanced Super Hornets, but its just those crazy squiddies!" 

Super Hornets offered to the Navy at a FANTASTIC price!

Thanks to T Rob for the link!

via Motley Fool

According to the military hardware experts at BGA-Aeroweb, the average flyaway cost on a Boeing (NYSE:BA) F/A-18-E/F Super Hornet fighter jet is $60.9 million. Upgrade that warbird to an electronic warfare specialist like Boeing's EA-18G Growler, and you can expect to pay much more -- $80.4 million per copy.


But has Boeing got a deal for you! And by "you," I mean the U.S. taxpayer.

Late last month, in its daily digest of contracts awarded to its favorite defense contractors, the U.S. Pentagon announced that it has just placed an order with Boeing to deliver to the U.S. Navy "seven Lot 40 EA-18G aircraft and associated airborne electronic attack kits and five F/A-18E aircraft." Going by BGA's prices, you might expect an order of this size to set the Pentagon back a good $867.3 million. But in fact, the Pentagon says this entire order for 12 brand new fighter jets is going to cost it only $678.7 million -- a $188.6 million savings on the sticker price.
That's a big savings for the taxpayer -- about 22% below list. Indeed, even on the off chance the Pentagon forgot to include the $119.4 million cost of the 24 F414-GE-400 engines manufactured by General Electric (NYSE:GE), which are essential to the operation of the planes, that price would still be $69.2 million below the price you'd ordinarily expect these planes to cost, based on the price Boeing quoted. Even in the unlikely scenario where the Pentagon is ordering airplanes from Boeing in one contract and their essential engines from General Electric in another, Boeing would still be giving the Pentagon a not inconsiderable 8% discount off of its list prices.

Nice. Very nice.  Interesting that the market place is finally working for defense.  Perhaps the govt needs to get into the business of designing its gear and then taking bids to construct it instead of leaving it to the manufacturer's.  That way if say BAE charges too much for an ACV we can bid it out and SAIC can win the contract.  I'm not sure but wasn't that once done with shipbuilding and aircraft?

How is that we could have so many different plants building the same tank, ship or airplane during WW2?  However it was done we might need to get back to it.

Yugoimport SDPR - Products Presentation

Open Comment Post. March 12, 2017.

China puts the J-20 into service because they fear the F-35?

via National Interest.

China made the decision to operationally deploy the J-20 despite its technical problems because of the threat posed the by Lockheed Martin F-35, according to the SCMP’s source. Indeed, more of the stealth fighters are scheduled to join the PLAAF later this year. “It’s urgent for China to show off its achievements as soon as possible,” the source said.
However, while Beijing is trying to rush the J-20 into service to counter the F-35, the Chinese machine is not likely to be a directly analogue to the American jet or its stablemate, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. The J-20—which appears to be larger than Raptor—is more likely designed to attack the support elements that hold American air operations together such as tankers, AWACS and JSTARs radar planes. Over the vast reaches of the Pacific, where fuel is at a premium, destroying a tanker could achieve the same result as shooting down an enemy fighter.
China is developing the ramjet-powered PL-15 that could have a range as great as 120 miles. The PL-15 weapon has caused consternation within the top-ranks of the U.S. Air Force with Air Combat Command commander Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle citing the Chinese weapon as one of the pressing reasons for the United States to develop a next-generation replacement for the decades-old AIM-120 AMRAAM.
“How do we counter that and what are we going to do to continue to meet that threat?” Carlisle asked during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in 2015. Later, during an interview with Flightglobal, Carlisle said that countering the new Chinese missile was an “exceedingly high priority” for the U.S. Air Force. “The PL-15 and the range of that missile, we’ve got to be able to out-stick that missile,” Carlisle said.
Indeed, the problem is not just that the PL-15 would out-range the AMRAAM, when coupled with the J-20, the Chinese could attack the tankers and ISR aircraft that would be the key enablers during any air campaign over the Pacific. A 2008 RAND briefing suggested that in order to sustain F-22 operations over Taiwan from Guam, the U.S. Air Force would need to launch three to four tanker sorties per hour to deliver 2.6 million gallons of fuel. That’s a fact that has not likely escaped Beijing’s notice.

Story here. 

I like Dave and he's played it as down the middle as possible when it comes to the F-35 controversy, but this article is curious as hell.

And I think he's missed the reasoning behind China's move.

The Chinese are as aware of the F-35's shortcomings as anyone in the West. I'm sure they scour websites and forums looking for info on the F-35.  They truly understand that the plane is not ready for primetime.

So if the F-35 isn't a threat then why did they rush the J-20 into service?

Simple.

To save face.

Asian culture is fascinating to me. To be publicly embarrassed, humiliated etc...will not stand.  Wait.  It's a bit more complicated than that and words escape me to properly describe it, but saving face is very important.  It dates back centuries but is still common enough to help understand actions on a personal and even international level.

That's one reason why Trump doesn't worry me on any issue except China.  If the Chinese leadership are backed into a corner they will hit back.  Don't get me wrong.  I don't fear the Chinese but I think I understand them.  Things that would require the turning of the cheek by US presidents and population to prevent hostilities are the same issues in reverse that would start WW3 if we did it to the Chinese.

Take the artificial islands for example.

If Japan, S. Korea or God forbid the US did the same to them in international waters the Chinese leadership would have sent warships to destroy the construction equipment.

Which brings me back to the F-35.

The Chinese don't fear it, but they did see a need to show the world and their own population that they aren't scared and that they could match us.  So what are we left with?  Two stealth fighters operating in the Pacific that aren't ready for combat.  Two countries that are posturing with equipment that doesn't work.  This boys and girls is how you stumble into wars you aren't ready for.

Elements of the 82nd are in Kuwait. US order of battle against ISIS is becoming clear.

via Army Times

 The U.S. military is sending an additional 2,500 ground combat troops to a staging base in Kuwait from which they could be called upon to back up coalition forces battling the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The deployment will include elements of the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, which is based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. About 1,700 soldiers from the same unit are overseas now, spread between Iraq and Kuwait. They're focused on the U.S.-led effort to train and assist the Iraqi troops doing much of the fighting against ISIS there. 

So why send the 82nd to Kuwait?

Theater Reserve?

Special Operations Support?  They are spread all over Kuwait so they might be doing the Army's version of distributed operations.

Rescue force for US units in danger of being over run?  Kinda far away for that, but I'm sure they have elements that have pushed forward and are setup in remote parts of the desert.

Occupation troops for Mosul or parts of Syria when ISIS is finally killed?  Doubt it.  They're too lightly equipped for that nonsense and Trump has stated that he isn't interested in nation building (ignore that "take the oil" stuff...it won't fly and even if it did we'd have to send Divisions not a Brigade Combat Team).

I don't know.

The Pentagon way of doing this is kinda curious.  Why send parts of your global response force when the 173rd is sitting in Europe waiting to do their job here.  With the distances involved and with the force being so light why not use the 101st (they are truly the forgotten division in the Army right now).

We see the outlines of the end game with regard to ISIS and the US order of battle is starting to take shape but the plan that's to be implemented is still murky.  I guess we need to be patient and see how this goes.

Blast from the past...LOSAT (Line-of-Sight Anti-Tank) for Early Entry Forces