F-35 News. S. Korea becoming nervous.

via Korean Herald.

Concerns are escalating in South Korea over possible delays in the development of the F-35 fighter jet as this could hinder Seoul’s project to deploy 40 of the radar-evading aircraft from 2018-2021.
The U.S-led multinational F-35 development program has recently been in the media spotlight due to a set of accidents, most recently on June 23, when one of the warplanes’ engines caught fire before takeoff.
Apart from the hardware issues, the development of certain software could face delays of up to 14 months, Bloomberg reported, citing a Pentagon report. The software is crucial for operating navigation, communications and targeting systems, the report said.
Amid concerns about the possible delays in the U.S.’ costliest defense program, Seoul’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration said that it would “closely watch the situation.”
“As we haven’t bought any of the F-35 jets under development yet and will purchase them from 2018, we still have some time to watch the situation and wait for solutions to come,” a DAPA official told The Korea Herald, declining to be named.

Wait!  What?  S. Korea hasn't actually bought any jets yet?  They won't buy them until 2018?  But the plan says the plane won't complete development until 2019!  Hmm.  This F-35 story is just starting to get good! 

Japanese Observer Exchange Program (JOEP) AAV Surf Qualification vid by Lance Cpl. Alexander N. Pool

Homeland Security News. Why are they importing Ebola into the US? UPDATE!

via NBC News.

Emory University Hospital in Atlanta said Thursday it was preparing a special isolation unit to receive a patient with Ebola disease “within the next several days”.
“We do not know at this time when the patient will arrive,” Emory said in a statement. The university also did not say whether the patient was one of two Americans battling Ebola infection in Liberia – charity workers Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly.

Read the story at the link but I have one simple and perhaps even simplistic question.

Why would you knowingly transport an infected patient into one of the US' biggest cities to provide treatment that will most likely not succeed in saving their life?

The doctor and nurse (or aidworker, I'm not sure) were experienced in dealing with the Ebola virus and became infected.  I can easily see a repeat but this time on US soil.  Someone in the hospital flubbs containment procedures, takes it home, spreads it to his wife and kids....the kids take it to school and suddenly we're looking at "outbreak" in Atlanta.

I don't know all the facts but this seems like a really stupid idea.  Bless the sick but two people are not worth the risk of starting a pandemic.

UPDATE:  The President signed an amendment to an executive order just YESTERDAY that expands on his authority to quarantine Americans if they have respiratory problems .... check it out here, here and here.  Interesting isn't it.

F-35 News. Which is it? Ready for war or in development?

DoD Buzz has an article where the USAF Chief of Staff is saying that we shouldn't be "alarmist" over the engine fire that will probably result in one of the 100 F-35's delivered to be written off.  This comment from a reader caught my eye.

torquewrench· 17 hours ago"'It’s not unusual in a development program to have something like this happen,' she said."

The powers that be keep telling us on the one hand that the jet is nearly ready to go to war. As a reliable, available instrument of force projection.

Then when something like this happens -- a dangerous, costly Class A mishap which will probably result in the burnt airframe being written off -- and that merely from taxiing out for takeoff -- the powers that be promptly say, "Oh, it's still in _development_, silly, you can't expect stability or maturity from the platform yet."

Which is it? Ready, or unready?

Something is going on behind the scenes with this program.

The USAF Chief of Staff is out in full force defending the plane...the Air Force Sec is out saying that we need to be agile enough to modify plans and not get locked into an "all or nothing" mindset when it comes to procurement (ComNavOps has a must read on this...check it out here)...the Brits still haven't put down money to buy their first "tranche" of airplanes.....

Yeah.  Something is going on.

Lets talk civilian casualties in the Israeli vs. Hamas conflict.

You're a LCpl in the USMC.

You're on patrol in some Middle Eastern country.  You don't care about the politics or the controversy.  The only thing you care about is getting home alive (hopefully in one piece) and making sure all of your buddies do too.

Suddenly out of nowhere you start taking fire from one of the few Christian churches in the region.

Do you.....

A.  Return fire, assured in the fact that senior leadership will have your back because the enemy chose to make a place of worship a fortification and a legitamite target? Or....

B.  Sit there and do nothing while your buddies die all around you...because its a place of worship?

Expand that to a "nation state".  What do you do when the enemy has militarized every Mosque, hospital, school, UN facility, residence etc....

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAMAS HAS DONE!

Check out the image above.  How do you target only military installations when the entire area they control has been converted into a military installation?  You accept the reality of the situation and act accordingly.  Hamas has chosen to place its people in harms way.

The Israeli's have accepted another cease fire.  That's unfortunate.  How do you lower civilian casualties in this war?  You finish the job as rapidly as possible.  The cease fire works against that.

Well that didn't last long.

Israel accepts a ceasefire (the same one I was railing against) and what does Hamas do?  They launch an ambush and kidnap/kill Israeli soldiers.  AMAZING!  How can they get so slack in their force protection measures?  This is not the Israeli military that I know!

TOS-1A in Iraq

Thanks to Dima for the article!

Article here.

Thermobaric rounds are nasty. The fact that they haven't been declared illegal for warfare is surprising to me.

Russian SU-27 Flanker pic via UK Ministry of Defence.

A Russian SU-27 Flanker aircraft photographed from a RAF Typhoon.

RAF Typhoons were scrambled on Tuesday 17 June 2014 to intercept multiple Russian aircraft as part of NATO’s ongoing mission to police Baltic airspace.

The Typhoon aircraft, from 3 (Fighter) Squadron, were launched after four separate groups of aircraft were detected by NATO air defences in international airspace near to the Baltic States.

Once airborne, the British jets identified the aircraft as a Russian Tupolev Tu22 ‘Backfire’ bomber, four Sukhoi Su27 ‘Flanker’ fighters, one Beriev A50 ‘Mainstay’ early warning aircraft and an Antonov An26 ‘Curl’ transport aircraft who appeared to be carrying out a variety of routine training. The Russian aircraft were monitored by the RAF Typhoons and escorted on their way.

The Typhoon pilots involved in the operation were Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Mark Long of 29 (Reserve) Squadron (the Typhoon operational training unit) and a French Air Force exchange pilot Commandant Marc-antoine Gerrard who is currently attached to 1(Fighter) Squadron.