Viper Strike arming the KC-130J Harvest Hawk.

Via DefPro.com...

Under the terms of the contract, Northrop Grumman will deliver 65 Viper Strike munitions beginning this year to the Joint Attack Munition Systems Project Office within the Program Executive Office Missiles and Space at Redstone Arsenal for eventual integration onto the KC-130J platform.

More info on Viper Strike and Harvest Hawk ....
http://www.es.northropgrumman.com/solutions/viperstrike/index.html
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Harvest-Hawk-Aims-to-Arm-USMCs-KC-130J-Aerial-Tankers-05409/


Just on a side note...check out our bureaucracy at work.  They're going to deliver them to the Joint Attack Munitions Systems Project Office within the Program Executive Office Missiles and Space and that's before NavAir gets ahold of it which is before Headquarters Marine Corps does its thing...all of which is before the guys who will actually use the damn thing get a chance to even see what it looks like!  Amazing!

II MEF SOTG HRST Master Course Vid.

Audio disabled but still illustrates how the USMC does it.

Change of command in Helmand.

This is getting interesting.  Read the story here, but note this passage...the last line in the story and perhaps a source of tension (remember that the US and Brits argued over the conduct of operations in Iraq)...

Reports have suggested that US commanders want British troops in Helmand to be redeployed elsewhere in southern Afghanistan.

Australian AF C-17 rough field landing.

Many A-400 proponents tout its rough field landing capability as the reason for being when it comes to choosing it over the C-17 despite the difference in cost being only 8-10 million dollars.

The Australians though seem quite pleased with the C-17's ability in the rough.

A Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster on approach to Multinational Base Tarin Kowt.

A Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster lands on the dusty airstrip of Multinational Base Tarin Kowt.

A Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster lands on the dusty airstrip of Multinational Base Tarin Kowt.

A Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster takes off from the Multinational Base Tarin Kowt with its heavy load of cargo.

A Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster banks for home with its payload of cargo from Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan.

A Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster takes off from the Multinational Base Tarin Kowt with its heavy load of cargo.

Dueling articles.

Well I was waiting for the duel to start up again and it looks like we have Information Dissemination and Early Warning picking up the boxing gloves.

While we'll have to wait and see who's right and wrong, I found these to be the 'operative' passages from both articles.

This from ID's article...

And with the higher price, we almost certainly will buy fewer airframes. This is one part of Robert Gates legacy in waiting few want to acknowledge exists.

And from EW....

The official projections are so wildly wrong that the Senate Armed Services Committee directed last week, "cost estimates developed for baseline descriptions and budgetary purposes shall not become the basis for negotiations with contractors and the obligations of funds." Translation: the government's cost estimates for F-35 and other major weapons programs threaten to drive up costs if negotiators take them seriously, rather than holding them down. Further evidence of this fact will become available in June, when the government reveals that F-35s in the next production lot are priced about 25% below what Pentagon estimators predicted. Needless to say, the estimators aren't answering questions about how they came up with their ridiculous guess-timates.

I'll wait patiently to see who's right...but if my suspicions prove to be correct (read that to be Air Power Australia mouth piece) then expect a loud and vocal 'intervention'....one of these guys is wrong and needs to be called on it.  Arrogance must be exposed and I'll enjoy doing it.

Australian Light Armored Vehicles.

The Australian Army has this listed on their site under Project Land 112.  Their classification system is confusing.  How they cobble that together with images of the ASLAV operating and deploying to Afghanistan is beyond me.

Update*
Army-Technology.com has a news release that Project Land 112 is the designation of an upgrade program for the ASLAV.  More info here.  It would seem that a Australia is embarking on a similar upgrade path that led the Marine Corps to the LAV-25A2.

An Australian Light Armoured Vehicle gathers dust as it climbs a feature north of Tarin Kowt.

Australian Light Armoured Vehicles provided security with superior firepower during the 18 hr Tor Ghar journey across the Oruzgan and Kandahar desert.

A refurbished Australian Light Armoured Vehicle destined for the 1st Mentoring Task Force rolls onto Afghanistan soil at Multinational Base Tarin Kowt.

Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force New York

A MV -22 Osprey flys out of Corona Park, Queens after completing a helicopter raid. More than 3,000 Marines, Sailors and Coast Guardsmen will be in the area participating in community outreach events and equipment demonstrations. This is the 26th year New York City has hosted the sea services for Fleet Week. 

Marines from Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force New York rush out of MV -22 Osprey while demonstrating a helicopter raid at Rye Playland, May 30. More than 3,000 Marines, Sailors and Coast Guardsmen will be in the area participating in community outreach events and equipment demonstrations. This is the 26th year New York City has hosted the sea services for Fleet Week. 

A CH-46 Sea Knight flys out of Corona Park, Queens after completing a helicopter raid. More than 3,000 Marines, Sailors and Coast Guardsmen will be in the area participating in community outreach events and equipment demonstrations. This is the 26th year New York City has hosted the sea services for Fleet Week.

Wow!

And that's wow in a crazy, amazing, horrifying, nature is a beast kind of way.  Photo from Boing-Boing and its of a sink hole in Guatemala caused by a tropical storm.