F-35 News. Program Manager admits death spiral all but here...

via National Defense Magazine.

Anytime anyone moves airplanes to the right, the price goes up.”
The surest way to lower cost, he said, is to bring in more foreign buyers into the program. The SAR estimates, he noted, do not include a possible order of 40 F-35s by South Korea, or anticipated future purchases by Singapore and Israel.
“We are pretty sure that Israel is not going to stop at 19,” Bogdan said. Another potential customer is Japan, which has a fleet of about 200 F-15s, half of which have been modernized. “At some point they will have to make a choice,” he said. “I can't influence that decision, other than keep driving the price of the airplane down. Then these FMS [foreign military sales] customers will make choices.”
Today, about 30 percent of F-35 components are made outside the United States, which exposes U.S. aircraft buys to fluctuations in foreign currency rates.
Bogdan insisted that the impact of budget cuts by the United States and other F-35 buying nations on aircraft cost projections should not be underestimated. In the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal, the Navy delayed purchases of 33 aircraft and the Air Force postponed four. Turkey and Canada slipped their buys by one year, and the Netherlands slashed its order from 80 to 37. The cumulative effect of these changes, said Bogdan, is a cost increase of 2 to 4 percent to the price of each airplane. If sequester-level budgets are enforced by the Congress between 2016 and 2019, 17 fewer U.S. aircraft would be produced.

Anyone who thinks the death spiral hasn't started isn't paying attention.

To hope that Israel buys more of these airplanes is a joke.  The budget isn't there and they still have to figure out maintenance.  Italy is about to slash its buy and Bogdan didn't touch on that.  Additionally Japan has indicated that its going to build its own stealth fighter so that's another miss for the program.

Things are dark and gloomy, the USN is sold on electronic warfare being the future not stealth and this is just the beginning of the bad news.

The Advanced Super Hornet Growler is the workhorse that the Marine Corps needs to make the MAGTF more deadly.  Utilizing the two seat approach to command UAVs, coupled with the airplanes inherent electronic attack that is useful across the spectrum of warfare and you have a combat multiplier extraordinaire (take that Pentagon speakers!) that WILL make the Marine Ground Combat Element more lethal.

Russian combined Airborne & Amphibious Assault...

All photos via English Russia.

I've said it before and will say it again.  The USMC and US Army are missing an opportunity to provide so much deterrence to any aggressive action by China in the Pacific that its mind blowing.  Instead of pushing the dynamic battlefield multiplier of conducting simultaneous Airborne and Amphibious Assault operations on the Battalion/Brigade level or higher (meaning the Marine Expeditionary Unit and the 82nd's Division Ready Brigade), both services are out trying to re-invent the wheel of the Rapid Deployment Forces of the 1980's.  

F-35 News. Now we're throwing bullshit against the wall to see what sticks....

via SLDInfo...

A key way to understand the difference between legacy approaches and evolving ones is to contrast a rotocraft enabled ground force with a tiltrotor and fast jet enabled force.
A rotorcraft enabled ground force is operating within the operational box of the rotorcraft range as well as the operating bases to support the operationsof the helicopter. At sea this meant that the USN-USMC team operated within a 200 square mile operational area with a three ship task force.
With the tiltrotor and fast jet combination, the capability to disperse and aggregate force over a much larger area has become a reality.At sea, this has meant that the USN-USMC team can now operate with a disaggregated three ship task force covering more than 1000 miles in operational reach.
The addition of the F-35B will add “tron warfare” capabilities as well as new ISR capabilities to the USMC insertion force as well, and the Marines are preparing for the initial introduction of such capabilities next year.

Read the entire propaganda piece here.

I've tried to be neutral in my stance toward SLDInfo.  I hate the Pentagon speak, and I've become less than impressed with the cheerleading on every issue that supports the F-35, but this latest piece has pushed me over the edge.

I mean seriously?

They're still pushing this SPMAGTF-CR theme and not bothering to fill in the blanks.  They still talk about a 3 ship ARG but don't explain what the Marines on the LPD and LSD will be doing while the MV-22 and F-35 and I would assume the Maritime Raid Force along with the Helo Company are operating off the LHD/LHA doing missions.

Additionally they don't touch on resupply, reinforcement, sustained supporting fires during the entirety of the mission, casualty evacuation etc....

They're simply throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks.

This is a bad idea, a useless concept and is making the Marine Corps a 101st Airborne at sea.

The America people expect more and deserve better from its Marines.

Sidenote:  I laugh at this "wi-fi" connected cloud.  I can build a wi-fi jammer with a quick trip to the local WalMart and I don't even approach average when it comes to electronics. 

Sidenote 1:  Will someone PLEASE tell HQMC, SLDInfo and the rest of the Pentagon to drop the terms; shaping, rebalancing, pivoting, new approach, relearning etc...from their talking points.  Its been fashionable for about a year now and its annoying as hell.

The weird MSNBC & Democrat Party gun debate talking points...

via Ammo Land...

During an April 16th 2014 appearance on NBC’s Today show, Bloomberg said:
[Politicians] will vote for whatever they think is in their own self interest to get elected and re-elected. We’ve got to convince them that 80 percent of gun owners… [and] 90 percent of Americans… are in favor of just simple background checks… we’ve got to make them understand that that’s what the public wants and the public’s going to vote that way.

I wonder why Republicans and Gun Rights groups aren't setting the record straight about how the actual gun debate went down last year.

You had the terrible shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary and before the first child had been buried we all got word that Senator Diane Fienstien had dusted off phase two of the Assault Weapons Ban and was trying to get it through Congress.

The President expended MUCH political capitol to make it happen but thankfully, the citizenry was awake and the assault was repelled.

Then just when we all thought we could exhale, that slimy son of a bitch, Senator Joe Manchin, decided to toss his fellow Democrats a bone by pushing a background checks bill.

Do you get the force of connection there?

They failed on their primary objective and then "pivoted" (I'm really starting to hate that word) to the secondary goal of getting ANY gun bill passed.

We didn't fall for it but they're gearing up again.

I hope we're alert 'cause just like zombies, they just won't quit.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

While you're doing whatever it is you and yours do to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, take a moment to remember your fellow citizens...away from home, forward deployed and in many cases hookin' and jabbin' just to see another sunrise. 

AH1Z Viper in action at Weapons & Tactics Instructors Course ....Photos by Lance Cpl. Eryn Rudolph

Bundy Ranch Standoff. Is this the first cleansing statement from the affair?

The above photo is one of the "famous" images of the Bundy Ranch standoff.  Notice the individual in the center of the photo with the USA cap wearing the multicam combat shirt?  Remember this image.

via Oafnation.com

While I was mingling with the protestors and starting to get comfortable, I was hearing that the day before, the BLM had taken up tactical positions with sharp-shooters and seemed to have provoked people to “get ready for anything” next. However, the mood was still somewhat relaxed and people felt just and in good spirits that we were doing the right thing. Mostly, I was running into Citizens who were tired of Government over-reach, being told that someone else knows what’s best for them and that public land was not “open to the public”! It’s hard to argue with any of this.
I had been boots-on-ground for about 15-20 minutes when two guys approached me. The first guy, Ryan, said I look like I have a background and know how to handle myself. I confirmed his observations. He let me know he and his buddy were militia and wanted to know if I was interested in helping out. I have to admit, I’ve been indoctrinated to be suspicious of militia (and there have been some historical instances to not ignore), so I was leery. I asked, “In what way?” Ryan broke it down that the guys he was with were providing security to the Bundy family and the protestors. I could support that since it’s fairly innocuous and I did want to make sure things were civil and justifiable because the Nation was waking up to what was happening there.

Read the entire article.

Its a pretty good first hand account of what happened at the Bundy Ranch from the perspective of the guy noted in the above photo.

But wait...there's more!

I don't know the guy from adam, but he goes by the nickname (codename?) Voodoo and he claims to be former military and a current Private Military Contractor.

He knows how shit works so I wonder....

Is this actually a cleansing statement to put his role in the entire affair before a VERY wide audience and to protect himself from future prosecution?

I don't know, but if it is then its pretty brilliant.

Side note:  I said cleansing statement, not cleansing warning.  I know the difference so save your firepower.