FNSS Kaplan MT Infographic...

Canadian TAPV suffering high rate of rollovers and fires...

via National Post.

The Canadian Army’s new armoured vehicles have been plagued by rollovers and fires, the latest in a series of problems to affect the $600-million fleet.

Since April 2014, there have been 10 incidents when Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicles have tipped on to their sides, six where they have rolled over completely, and four where they have caught fire.

Pat Finn, the assistant deputy minister in charge of procurement at the Department of National Defence, told Postmedia there have been no serious injuries as a result of the incidents. But the problems are not the first to hit the Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicles or TAPVs.

The TAPV program has “experienced a number of significant technical issues, particularly affecting vehicle mobility,” then-defence minister Rob Nicholson was told in August 2014. There have been problems with the suspension, steering and other items on the vehicle, according to a briefing document released under the Access to Information law.

The technical issues significantly delayed the test program for the vehicles, the document added. “These accumulating incidents, which relate to the vehicle’s ability to travel distances on medium cross country terrain, led the project office to conclude the existing testing could no longer continue.”

The Conservative government announced the TAPV contract in 2012 as part of its re-equipping of the Canadian Army. Canada bought 500 TAPVs from Textron, a U.S.-based defence firm, at a cost of $603 million. The TAPV is a wheeled combat vehicle that will conduct reconnaissance and surveillance, security, command and control, and armoured transport of personnel and equipment.

Finn said as a result of the various incidents further quality assurance tests are being done. “It’s kind of high off the ground so it can be more agile,” he explained about the vehicle. “(But) it brings with it a high centre of gravity.”

“It may be it’s about training and understanding the vehicle,” Finn added.

None of the vehicles have been written off because of the incidents, according to the Canadian Army. “Upon review of the major TAPV incidents, it has been identified that the most common contributing factors of these incidents tends to be human error due to limited familiarity time operating the vehicles,” the army noted in an emailed statement to Postmedia.

The army pointed out that investigations into the incidents did not reveal any design or mechanical faults. “Primary reports on the majority of these incidents (rollover and tip-overs) were attributed to a combination of factors, such as operator experience, the vehicle’s high centre of gravity, weather conditions, and/or vehicle speed,” the email noted.

The army did not provide any explanation for the four fires on the TAPVs.

The army noted that it is considering limits on the speeds the vehicles can operate at as well as “rollover hazard mitigations” and “recommendations such as the use of new technology to enhance experience for new drivers and crew.”

The army did not provide further details on those new technologies or initiatives.

The TAPV project will cost taxpayers a total of $1.2 billion, which not only includes the vehicles but also includes the building of infrastructure to house them, as well as the purchase of ammunition and service support for the equipment.

The initial problems with steering and other issues delayed the delivery of the vehicles. After those were dealt with, the army had to contend last year with concerns about brakes and the distance the vehicles needed to stop. The TAPV is a heavy vehicle and requires longer stopping distances at higher speeds than most new drivers are familiar with, noted DND spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier in July 2018.

The fleet of TAPVs have been distributed across seven bases and 24 units throughout Canada. The Canadian army has said it expects to declare full operational capability by mid-2020, following training of all operators. TAPVs were first deployed in spring 2017 to assist communities affected by the flooding in Quebec.

This is (in my opinion) an issue of driver training first and foremost.  If you ain't used to driving a high center of gravity vehicle...especially over rough terrain, then you're gonna see stuff like this.

That explains the rollovers.

The vehicle fires?

I have no clue.

Either way I'm a fan of the TAPV and know that it will serve the Canadians well.  Hopefully they get this sorted out quickly.  If they do then this bargain priced acquisition will live up to its potential.

More Tornado farewell pics (low level)...

The Twitter-verse is getting geared up big time for the Tornado farewell.  I'm starting to see more and more pics of the Tornado in its natural element...Low & Fast!  It's a glorious send off for a great plane...

Rest In Peace, Mr. Overton, Sir!!!

God Bless!

Wish I could have talked to you in this life.  Bet you had some stories to tell! Maybe I'll get a chance in the next one...have a sip of the Makers Mark and relax a while...we either got this or we don't but you damn sure did your part...

Monday Motivation...

Open Comment Post. 14 Jan 2019

Aviation guys to the front. Is this impressive or what? F-35 partial practice demo released by 56th Fighter Wing...

View this post on Instagram

Full send. The demo is coming together and we can’t wait to bring it to you. See you on the road! Special shoutout to my safety observer, wingman, coach, bro, and fellow #lightningdriver @gambit1535 . He’s been a part of this from the beginning. Getting ready for @mlbairshow, @b_lilley_321 ! 📸 by @theromanticjaguar (great name btw),repost from @patriot_ops #fullsend #sent #sendit #f35 @lukeafb @f35demoteam

A post shared by Andrew Olson (@andyo_dojo) on Jan 10, 2019 at 4:46pm PST

I don't know enough to know if this is impressive but I have to give credit where it's due.

It looked good to me.

Didn't think an F-35 could do that.  Climbing straight up in afterburner?  Yeah, that's kinda ordinary especially with reduced payload and fuel (which I assume is all part of ALL demos). 

What has me wondering is the "controlled fall" (don't know what else to call it...popular media would say that its a prelude to a flat spin) that the bubba seemed to be in complete control of.

But like I said.  I don't know enough to know.  So all the aviation dudes in the class to the front.

Is this partial demo impressive or what?

Artist impression of the new Project 20386 Corvette for the Russian Navy via Navy Recognition...

CH-148 Cyclone helicopter, Avalanche aboard Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) VILLE DE QUEBEC is put thru its paces...

How the Air Force Lost Its Way By Jerry Hendrix

via National Review...

The Air Force once understood its purpose with stark clarity. In the first half of the 20th century, air-power advocates continually stressed the importance of bypassing tactical skirmishes and penetrating to the enemy’s vital centers to coerce either the foreign government or its population to submit. Independent air forces in Great Britain and Italy focused their procurement efforts on larger and longer-range heavy bombers. Non-independent air forces, such as the U.S. Army Air Corps, sought the same even as their parent service (the U.S. Army, in the American case) pressed them to buy tactical aircraft and perform direct-combat air-support missions for ground infantry and armor units. This made some sense during World War II, when long-range bombers found themselves in need of fighter escorts to fend off enemy fighters and establish temporary air dominance for the bombers to get through to their targets. But after the war, science and engineering combined to alter circumstances.

The jet engines that came to dominate aircraft design during the early years of the Cold War changed the nature of force employment, as jet fighters no longer had the range to escort the jet bombers of the newly established and very powerful Strategic Air Command to targets inside the Soviet Union. Fighters then became specialized for air-defense and air-dominance missions within a radius of a couple of hundred miles of fighter bases. Strategic Air Command bombers, which numbered in the thousands, soon began to specialize themselves, evolving towards designs that could fly higher and faster in order to penetrate Soviet air defenses. The Soviets responded by building new surface-to-air missiles and high-altitude/high-speed interceptors to rob American bombers of their advantages. It was only at the end of the Cold War, with the introduction of the stealth B-2 Spirit bomber, that bombers regained the upper hand in the U.S.–USSR strategic competition. But by then, the Strategic Air Command had been disestablished, and the Air Force felt that its mission had changed.

The change began during the Vietnam War, in which fighters flying from land bases in South Vietnam were loaded up with bombs to hit land targets in North Vietnam and along supply routes in neighboring countries. The improved accuracy of smaller aircraft carrying lighter loads of bombs and providing combat air support to American ground forces in direct contact with the enemy began to subtly alter the internal culture of the Air Force. The bomber “tribe,” based in the politically powerful Strategic Air Command, had supplied six of the first ten Air Force chiefs of staff, but it began to lose influence within the service to the fighter “tribe.” In the 36 years since Chief of Staff Lew Allen Jr. retired, no bomber pilot has occupied that office, and the Air Force’s inventory of bombers has shrunk from over 10,000 aircraft during the 1950s to fewer than 200 today. Fighter pilots gained ascendency based upon the assumptions of access to bases within range of their enemies, the ability of their supporting tanker force to survive, and the greater importance of air supremacy than long-range-strike capability.

Air supremacy is a straightforward concept. It seeks a degree of superiority over an opposing air force such that the enemy is incapable of effective interference with friendly aircraft or ground and naval forces. This definition of air superiority held for regional wars such as those in Vietnam, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq (both times), and Afghanistan (where the enemy had no opposing air power to speak of). Air Force theorists also state that air superiority applies to theater campaigns (those that range across an entire region of the globe), enabling larger aircraft, cargo haulers, refueling tankers, and bombers to operate freely — except when they cannot, and that is where the modern United States Air Force lost its way.

Story here. 

Hendrix is right but he's wrong too.

Right when talking about the Fighter Mafia taking control of the USAF.  Wrong when he tries to talk about the reason why.

What did he miss?

He missed the reality of America's wars for the past half century.  America has been involved in a continuing small wars cycle for as long as I can remember.  Because past Air Force leadership was so wedded to the idea of the Strategic Air Command being only useful for nuclear strike they were late to the party to providing support for the kind of wars America was involved in.

Because they were late and so singularly focused they were slow to pickup on the changing nature of hot wars, the politics of denuclearization and almost impotent when Air Force reorganization gave power to the part of the force that was most involved in the fighting.

When did this happen?

By my reckoning shortly after Vietnam and hit warp speed when the USSR fell.

What I find astonishing is the bare facts of things. 

One squadron of B-52's or B-1's can provide all the support that the ground forces need in say Afghanistan.  Not only would it be less costly but a couple of plains loitering over the country carry a reasonable load of precision munitions would see as good if not better performance than their fighter brothers can provide.

The Air Force has lost its way but it's because US policy makers don't know what they're doing or how they want to do it.

82nd Airborne (along with their new LAVs) practice "water gap" crossings...pics by Sgt. Gin-Sophie De Bellotte

Wonder why the Army/82nd isn't taking advantage of their swim capabilities?

F-4 Phantom with MAX gun load...

F-4 Phantom carrying 5 (5th one is hiding behind the nose wheel cover because it’s shy) rotary cannons

French yellow vest protests hit 9th week...are we seeing a slow motion revolution?

via WBTW.com

Thousands of yellow vest protesters marched Saturday through Paris and other French cities for a ninth straight weekend to denounce President Emmanuel Macron's economic policies, and repeated tensions broke out with police.

Sporadic violence broke out during protests in Paris, Bourges, Bordeaux, Rouen, Marseille and Toulouse.

Protesters walked peacefully through central Paris from the Finance Ministry in the east of the French capital to the Arc de Triomphe in the west.

Scuffles between police and activists then broke out near the monument at the end of the march. Police used tear gas, water cannon and flash-balls to push back some people throwing rocks and other objects at them.

French security forces equipped with armored vehicles blocked protesters from going onto nearby Champs-Elysees Avenue. The neighborhood was reopened to car traffic later Saturday evening.

The Interior Ministry said more than 100 people had been arrested in Paris and other French cities, including 82 who were kept in police custody, primarily for carrying potential weapons or taking part in violence.

The movement demanding wider changes to France's economy to help struggling workers appeared to gain new momentum this weekend. The French Interior Ministry said about 32,000 people turned out for yellow vest demonstrations across France at midday.

Several thousand protesters marched in the central city of Bourges, a provincial capital with a renowned Gothic cathedral and picturesque wood-framed houses.

French authorities deployed 80,000 security forces nationwide for the anti-government protests and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner threatened tough retaliation against any who rioted.

Paris police deployed armored vehicles, horses and attack dogs around the city on Saturday. Subway stations and some shops closed, notably around government buildings and the Champs-Elysees, the sparkling avenue whose luxury boutiques have been hit by repeated rioting in past protests.

The movement for greater economic equality waned over the holidays but appears to be resurging, despite Macron's promises of billions of euros in tax relief and an upcoming "national debate" to address demonstrators' concerns that Macron is expected to launch with a "letter to the French" on Monday.

Wow.  Kinda hard to worry about climate change, the plight of refugees and all the other hot button topics that the main stream media pushes when you're worried about feeding your family.

The idea that the French are dealing with these protest going into a THIRD month tell me this is not the ordinary protests we see there.

Something is going on. 

Dare we ask if we're seeing a slow motion revolution?

When times are good you will see generosity that you wouldn't believe from the free nations of this world.

But times ain't been good since the great recession (except for the profiteers in the financial centers and govt sectors).

The French people have historically led change.  They're following the example of the Brits this time (Brexit is nothing but a primal scream for independence, representative govt and financial self determination) and to a small degree even if the US but they're doing the do.

Vive la France!

Open Comment Post. 13 Jan 2019

125-mm self-propelled anti-tank gun "Sprut-SD" is shooting afloat

Pic via my friends over at Aerospace Defense...

Let's grow a pair. Why are you against the wall?

I want to wade into some waters that will probably end in confusion but I'm gonna do it anyway.

I want to hear from the anti-wall people and why they're against it.  Once again I'm practically begging for coherent responses and not emotionalism.  If the best you can hit me with is "it's not us" or "it's not America" then sit on the sidelines and watch.

Before we get started a few facts.

1.  Walls do work.  The best example is what we're seeing in Israel.  Terror attacks are WAY DOWN thanks to the wall.  Same applies in other countries too.

2.  America has throughout it's history taken a "pause" on immigration to allow for assimilation.  I propose that we do this now.

3.  Being for the wall and taking a pause for assimilation has nothing to do with racism (although there are many racists asking for the same thing).  It's about keeping America from being Balkanized.  We don't need different countries inside our own.  We need ONE America.

4.  Want to know why wages aren't rising?  Because you have a steady influx of workers.  Scarcity makes demand.  The demand just ain't there because the borders are wide open.  What has me spinning is that this affects poor blacks, whites and hispanics the most, but they're also some of the people most in favor of continued immigration!

So hit me with your best shot.  Tell me why I'm wrong to support the wall.  Keep it clean.  Leave your racists views at home (for the very tiny few that have them...at least on these pages...I've cleaned house pretty good and have my eye on one or two more that will be punted) and let's have a proper debate.

Lesson #1: always respect the weather in Norway! Visibility decreased from 5km to 200m in the space of 5mins. No first flight today, hopefully tomorrow!

From the 4th AAC Twitter Page

I've read that Europe is getting pounded with snow but this is crazy!

Bundesheer Helos in the snow.

Amazing Courage. Awesome Leadership. Heroics beyond compare. The story of Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean, HMAS Armidale

pic & story via USS Edsall Tumblr Page...

Caption to the pic from the Australian War Memorial...

‘Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean, HMAS Armidale’ by Dale Marsh (1978) depicts the figure of Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean, HMAS ‘Armidale’ from back half prone on deck at stern of ship dressed only in shorts and boots, a wound on his right thigh, firing an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun at Japanese bombers; a number of seamen are in the water having abandoned ship.

Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean went down with the HMAS 'Armidale’ firing his gun to the last.

As the Australian vessel began to sink, the crew took to the water. The Japanese aerocraft attacking her stopped attacking the ship and began to strafe the survivors in the water. Edward Sheean strapped himself into a gun on the sinking ship and opened fire, undoubtedly saving many lives; he shot down one Zero and damaged two more. He continued firing even after the ship slipped below the waves, taking him with her.

I am in Awe.

This dude was pure dee stud.  Australia and the men of his ship was lucky to have him.

LAV Anti-Tank Weapon System to reach FOC by end of 2019 .... Photos by Kaitlin Kelly

The Marine Corps continues to upgrade the turret system for the Light Armored Vehicle-Anti-Tank. The LAV Team at Marine Corps Systems Command continues to provide new equipment training to units receiving the Anti-Tank Weapon System upgrade, with the final two training evolutions scheduled for early this year. Full operational capability for the ATWS is expected at the end of fiscal year 2019.