F-35 News. Behind the scenes it must be getting scary for supporters.

via Defense News.

In recent weeks, two senior Republicans have suggested the US should avoid buying fewer of the Lockheed Martin-made fighter jets or significantly altering the often-troubled program, which has been plagued by technical, development and testing problems.
The first instance of the new F-35 talking point came from Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., chairman of the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee, in an April 30 interview with Defense News.
Asked whether he believes the Pentagon and Congress should merely pay whatever costs the program rolls up, Frelinghuysen did not directly answer.
But the New Jersey Republican did say this: “We have an obligation to our international partners. We are not alone in this investment.”
In a further signal that the pro-defense establishment wing of the Republican Party is rallying around the program — and Lockheed, which funnels plenty of campaign cash to the GOP — Frelinghuysen accused critics of “taking some potshots” at the F-35 program.

Wow.

For all the sunshine and roses that the F-35 program puts out there, its becoming obvious that behind the scenes the program is in trouble.

The Representative put it out there.

Someone is talking about buying fewer of the airplanes.  Someone is talking about significantly altering the program.

This turkey is inches away from getting plucked.

About fucking time.  Maybe we can save the rest of the military once we put a bullet in the head of this abomination! 

2014 Ships and Subs of the US Navy. From Raytheon via War Machine Blog.

Semper Fi Bowl is back. Recruiting must be hurting....

via Marine Corps Times.

Marine Corps officials will reinstate funding for the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl, a high-profile recruiting event that brings together dozens of high school football players from across the country each year. Earlier, the Corps had announced the program would be cut due to budgetary constraints.
Marine Corps Recruiting Command received additional mid-year funding from higher headquarters, said Jim Edwards, a Recruiting Command spokesman. That will allow the command to execute the next bowl game in January 2015, he said.
Maj. Gen. Mark Brilakis, commanding general of MCRC, told Marine Corps Times in the fall that the command was weighing the benefits of the bowl as officials looked for ways to work through fiscal constraints caused by across-the-board budgetary spending cuts. But about five months after they decided to put the program on hold, a funding change has brought it back.
“The commandant has decided that this is one of those premiere events that he would like us to continue and provided the resources necessary to do it,” Brilakis said, according to a Marine Corps news release.

This is more telling than the USMC wants to admit.

I knew it was coming.  Hell I've been hoping that this was coming.

The Marine Corps and this Administration has made moves that have separated the Marine Corps from its audience.

Sorry but time for some real talk.  Gays in the military.  Women in combat.  A lying sack of shit in the Commandant's chair.

The Marine Corps has lived and prospered off the fact that the Marine Corps is a family tradition.  A southern family tradition.  Now?  Its embracing ideals and lifestyles that are in direct conflict with the belief systems of retirees, vets and former service members.  Recruiters might talk shit about making mission but the reality is a bit more stark.  They get recruits because those recruits are beating down the door to get in the Marines.  They've had to sort the substandard from those that are worthy.

Now?

People like me are telling young men to NOT join.  Telling young men that the threat to their future is too great in a Marine Corps that's lost its way.

Yeah.  Mr. Amos.  You might bring back the Semper Fi bowl but it won't solve your problem.  You've alienated those you need to support you.  Fix that problem and you'll fix your recruiting crunch.

Camp Pendleton Fires. This is getting real.

pics via Heliops Magazine.

155mm Field Howitzer 77B: The Bofors Gun

Thanks for the vid John!

Ignore the high stepping and focus on the gun.

As big as the US Army and especially the Marine Corps is on heliborne artillery raids...as big a threat as counter battery fires are....

Why don't we have an auxiliary power unit on our howitzers to give them a bit of independent ground mobility?

I don't think we're serious about the artillery raid concept (well the heliborne concept anyway) until we do the basics.  The ability to displace these units before the enemy can launch return fires seems like a no brainer.

Africa is about to get interesting. Chinese workers kidnapped.

via Wall Street Journal.

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon—Suspected militants from Boko Haram attacked a Chinese road-construction company in this country's north, kidnapping 10 workers, driving away vehicles and stealing blasting material, an official in Cameroon said Saturday.
The Friday evening assault in Cameroon marked the latest cross-border attack from a Nigerian insurgency blamed for a spate of recent kidnappings. News of the attack surfaced Saturday, on the same day Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, met in Paris with Western and African leaders.
Participants at the meeting agreed to forge a plan for combating Boko Haram, after the Nigerian militancy abducted nearly 300 schoolgirls and killed scores of civilians in recent shooting and bomb attacks.
Ahead of Friday's raid on the Chinese road construction company in Waza, a town bordering northeastern Nigeria, gunmen cut off power to the workers' camp. The heavily armed assailants killed one Cameroonian soldier before driving away about a dozen vehicles loaded with explosives belonging to the company, according to a local official, Albert Obounou.

The response will be interesting.

Will China sit back?  Will they launch a twitter campaign?  Will they pay ransom?

Or will they launch a rescue operation?

We will get an indication of how China views themselves.  Either they're really a global player or they're just a regional bully.

We'll see.

300 ship Navy? Not if you count it correctly!

If you aren't reading Eric's ELP Blog then you're missing out.  I might not always agree (he has a hard on for the Stryker and I tend to like the vehicle) but he gives me something to chew on.

To the point.  He did an article that gives an alternate view on the number of ships in the US Navy...check this out...

The U.S. military services are at war with each other to battle for shrinking funding. We hear, time and again, that the U.S. Navy does not have enough ships. That the U.S. Navy's goal of 300 ships is at high risk of being out of reach. Things are bad. How will we fight future wars?
What you have been told is not true.
Here is the current breakdown of the 422 ships managed by the Navy (minus Pueblo and Constitution)

Commissioned (USS);
1 Afloat forward staging base (*see USS Ponce)
10 Aircraft carriers
9 Amphibious assault ships
2 Amphibious command ships
10 Amphibious transport docks
54 Attack submarines
14 Ballistic missile submarines
1 Classic frigate (*see USS Constitution)
22 Cruisers
62 Destroyers
12 Dock landing ships
15 Frigates
4 Guided missile submarines
3 Littoral combat ships
13 Mine countermeasures ships
13 Patrol boats
2 Submarine tender
1 Technical research ship (*see USS Pueblo)
Non-Commissioned (USNS);
1 Ammunition ship
1 Cable repair ship
5 Cargo ships (5 of 12)
14 Dry cargo ships
4 Fast combat support ships
4 Fleet ocean tugs
1 High speed transport
2 Hospital ships
2 Instrumentation ships
2 Joint high speed vessels
4 Maritime prepositioning ships
1 Mobile landing platform
5 Ocean surveillance ships
15 Replenishment oilers
4 Salvage ships
7 Survey ships
1 Fuel tanker (1 of 2)
19 Vehicle cargo ships (19 of 56)
Support (MV, RV - or no prefix);
2 Barracks craft
2 Cargo ships (2 of 12)
3 Container ships
2 Dry docks
1 Fast sea frame
11 Large harbor tugs
1 Oceanographic research ship
1 Self Defense Test Ship
2 Torpedo trials craft
6 Tugboats
2 Unclassified miscellaneous
Ready Reserve Force ships (MV, SS, GTS);
2 Aviation logistics support ships
5 Cargo ships (5 of 12)
6 Crane ships
1 Fuel tanker (1 of 2)
37 Vehicle cargo ships (37 of 56)
Totals;
Commissioned: 248, Non-Commissioned: 92, Support: 33, Ready Reserve: 51.


The U.S. Army has another 50

And the USAF has 3 which move around munitions. These are charted but useless without the job they were made for.
The United States Coast Guard? This is a valid count as this organisation has ships siphoned off supporting expeditionary warfare. It has about 244 cutters. Real "Littoral Combat Ships".
The United States has about 721 ships committed to National Security.
Many of these that are not traditional heavy hitters could be weaponized quickly to carry Tomahawk boxes or other similar missile-in-a box solutions.
The United States has a "Navy" scattered among many organisations doing national security work. When the DOD cries about not having enough ships to fight wars, don't believe them. And, lately most of those wars have been of the Operation:USELESS DIRT kind.

That's a common sense look at the US Navy's ships that many ignore.  I look forward to seeing how one of the Navy guys shoots down ELP's ship count.

The number that jumped out at me was the number of Destroyers.

We're talking about Burke class warships that have been called modern day battleships.  If that analysis is correct then we are well served by the Navy we have and the 300 number is not as alarming as many would have us believe.