Expeditionary Fire Support System

European Sea Power done right.

The Phoenix Think Tank is a blog whose members thoughts mirror my own.

*They believe in a strong independent Europe and most relevantly...a powerful UK.

*They believe that as a maritime nation, the UK must reverse the terrible downsizing that the Royal Navy is currently suffering from.

*They believe that the retirement of the Harriers was shortsighted and politically motivated (so true!)

*They believe that economic strength comes not at the point of a gun but from the ability to first deter aggression and then, if that fails, to be able to react successfully to protect their nations goals/beliefs.

In short, we're like brothers in our thinking...in our service to our respective nations...and in our belief that naval forces are many times the instrument of choice when it comes to dealing with 22nd century despots, dictators and madmen.

Follow the link and read PTT. 

Sharkeys World also has a wealth of interesting information and is authored by the same individuals.  I have them both bookmarked.

Easy defense cuts.

If we want easy defense cuts then here's the way to do it.

Stop subsidizing Europe and pull our Combat Brigades out and bring them home.  Defense experts complain that Europe should be spending more on defense.  The Europeans complain that we spend too much.

Lets make this simple adjustment, get Europe from behind the US shield and watch our allies shoulder more of the burden.  This story is via Military .com but even though the Obama Administration is calling for fewer cuts, you can bet that budget reality will make this low hanging fruit.

Want to really save money?  Pull everyone back (the allies complain about US troops on their soil...well everyone but S. Korea and maybe Australia...if we ever get that base built in the Northern Territories).  World wide.

Read the whole thing but this is the operative paragraph...and from a Republican no less.  Shameful.

In a recent letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar warned that the withdrawals could undermine European security and the sense among NATO allies that the U.S. is committed to Europe.

I mean seriously.  European security.  Not US security but European security?!  Time for him to find a new job.

Quote of the day. April 8, 2011.

Lying offshore, ready to act, the presence of ships and Marines sometimes means much more than just having air power or ship's fire, when it comes to deterring a crisis. And the ships and Marines may not have to do anything but lie offshore. It is hard to lie offshore with a C-141 or C-130 full of airborne troops.
Gen. Colin Powell, U. S. Army
Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff

Come back from the edge Sweetman.

I wrote this on ARES blog tonight...

and guess what XGDUDE.

Congress forced a single program down the throats of the military. there was a competition and Lockheed Martin won. i don't remember nary a complaint about LM when they did. i hear nary a complaint about the F-22 even though its shorter ranged than the F-35, is a maintenance nightmare and its vaunted supercruise has yet to be validated in even a combat exercise.

but as usual this board has been and continues to be overrun with apostles of Bill in their negativity toward a program that is flowing tech advancements back to legacy programs and even the F-22 at a rate that would have had NASA engineers blushing during the heyday of the Apollo space program.

i marvel at the audacity, cringe at the stupidity and wonder at the motives of some of you here.

have fun boys. it ain't worth visiting or reading tripe like this anymore. oh and to the author of this piece. i've read the whole report and the summary.

seems you left out more than a few positives that were contained in it.

was that by accident or on purpose.

fair and balanced?

i don't freaking think so.

Sweetman and his merry band of followers have definitely gone too far.  No one is yanking him back and this vendetta against the F-35 is becoming twisted.

A noted journalist spinning facts to fit a narrative?

It ain't suppose to work that way.

But it is and no one is calling him on it.

This is a copy of the actual GAO report so that you can read it for yourself.  Suffice it to say that Sweetman left out quite a bit of positive information in his reporting.

I'm to the point where I don't expect anything less.

Thanks for sending this Craig...you're a hero (and forgive my rant)..



d11325

Lasers at Sea.

Lasers at Sea.

If it works on Destroyers then a major excuse for not performing amphibious assaults (and the missile threat is simply an excuse) goes away.  Amphibs will be able to make runs toward the beach and launch AAVs, and the next generation AAV with almost impunity.

But it gets better.

The threat of China's Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile becomes neutralized as well.

via Fox News...

Navy Shows Off Powerful New Laser Weapon

By Jeremy A. Kaplan

Published April 08, 2011 | FoxNews.com

One if by land … lasers if by sea.
A futuristic laser mounted on a speeding cruiser successfully blasted a bobbing, weaving boat from the waters of the Pacific Ocean -- the first test at sea of such a gun and a fresh milestone in the Navy's quest to reoutfit the fleet with a host of laser weapons, the Navy announced Friday.
"We were able to have a destructive effect on a high-speed cruising target," chief of Naval research Rear Adm. Nevin Carr told FoxNews.com.
The test occurred Wednesday near San Nicholas Island, off the coast of Central California in the Pacific Ocean test range, from a laser gun mounted onto the deck of the Navy’s self-defense test ship, former USS Paul Foster.
In a video of the event, the small boat can be seen catching fire and ultimately bursting into flames, a conflagration caused by the navy's distant gun. Some details of the event were classified, including the exact range of the shot, but Carr could provide some information: "We're talking miles, not yards," Carr said.
The Navy, Army and other armed forces have been working to incorporate so called "directed energy" laser weapons in a range of new guns, from tank-mounted blasters to guns on planes or unmanned balloons. But this marks the first test of a laser weapon at sea -- and proof that laser rifles are no mere Buck Rogers daydream.
“This is the first time a [high-energy-laser], at these power levels, has been put on a Navy ship, powered from that ship and used to defeat a target at-range in a maritime environment,” said Peter Morrison, program officer for the Office of Naval Research.
"The Navy is moving strongly towards directed energy," Carr told FoxNews.com.
The weapon, called the maritime laser demonstrator, was built in partnership with Northrop Grumman. It focused 15 kilowatts of energy by concentrating it through a solid medium -- hence the name.
"We call them solid state because they use a medium, usually something like a crystal," explained Quentin Saulter, the research office's program officer. It was used in Wednesday's demonstration against a small boat, but Carr told FoxNews.com that this and other types of laser weaponry could be equally effective against planes and even targets on shore.
"To begin to address a cruise missile threat, we'd need to get up to hundreds of kilowatts," Carr said.
The Navy is working on just such a gun of course.
Called the FEL -- for free-electron laser, which doesn't use a gain medium and is therefore more versatile -- it was tested in February consuming a blistering 500 kilovolts of energy, producing a supercharged electron beam that can burn through 20 feet of steel per second.
The FEL will easily get into the kilowatt power range. It can also be easily tuned as well, to adjust to environmental conditions, another reason it is more flexible than the fixed wavelength of solid-state laser. But the Navy doesn't expect to release megawatt-class FEL weapons until the 2020s; among the obstacles yet to be overcome, the incredible power requirements of the FEL weapons require careful consideration.
Also in the Navy's futuristic arsenal: a so-called "rail gun," which uses an electomagnetic current to accelerate a non-explosive bullet at several times the speed of sound.
Railguns are even further off in the distance, possibly by 2025, the Navy has said. But the demonstration of the maritime laser demonstrator this week proves that some laser weapons are just around the corner: Northrop Grumman experts aim to have the final product ready by June of 2014.
"One of the things that amazes me about this business is that the future is getting closer every day," Carr said.

Brits to rethink defense cuts in light of war in Libya.

Read it at Sky News  

One thing is obvious.  It appears that the leadership is dead set against reactivating the Harrier force and for some reason is totally focused on the Tornados.

The Royal Air Force needs to be downsized.  It is constantly at war with the Navy and Army --- and seems to be getting a disproportionate amount of defense funds.  And its major contribution to the war in Afghanistan was in coordination with the Navy, yet they seem to have garnered all the credit.

Communication with the public regarding capabilities, roles and work done is beyond necessary.  Its essential to winning budget wars.  The US Marine Corps needs to learn from the Royal Navy.  Don't expect policy makers to "KNOW" what you've done, the sacrifices made and the value brought to the nation.  It MUST be shouted to the roof tops and publicized.  If not then the Corps will face the same issues that the RN is.

Patria AMV and the USMC.

Ok, a couple of things. That's being tested at Pendleton...Second I didn't know that the vehicle was suppose to be able to operate in surf conditions. Lastly...I like it. Still love the modularity of the now dead SEP but this seems to be doing the job. Also, its very interesting that the USMC would put out a video featuring ONE vehicle. This might be a nod toward the Patria AMV being single sourced for production. The Commandant said that he wanted this vehicle quickly...a selection now would be about right to have it in production by fiscal year 2013 or just after the next Presidential election.