Israel is looking to buy a second F-35 squadron

Via the Jerusalem Post.

The Israel Air Force is moving forward with plans to purchase a second squadron of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and hopes to be able to place the order in the coming year and after resolving the standoff with the Treasury over the defense budget.
According to initial plans, the IAF would place the order for the second squadron in late 2012-early 2013 and begin receiving the planes in 2020. It is possible however that the US would attach the new squadron to the one ordered in 2010 and expedite the delivery if the order is placed soon.
Israel finalized the procurement of its first squadron of 20 F-35s in a $2.75 billion deal in October, 2010. The aircraft are manufactured by Lockheed Martin and IAF pilots are expected to begin training on them in the US in 2016 with their planned arrival in Israel in early 2017.
IAF chief Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan, who will step down in April, was a big proponent of the deal and overcame heavy opposition within the defense establishment to gain the government’s approval for the 2010 deal.
His successor, current head of the IDF Planning Directorate Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel, was also supportive of the deal and is expected to push for the second squadron immediately after taking up the post in a month.
The fifth-generation stealth F-35 is purported to be one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world with the ability to fly undetected in enemy territory.
Its uniqueness stems not only from its stealth capabilities but also from its integrated sensor suite that provides pilots with unprecedented situational awareness and enables information sharing between the various aircraft.
The second contract would likely be for a similar number of aircraft and could mean – depending on when the second deal is signed – that the IAF could have 40 operational aircraft by the end of the decade. Nehushtan recently decided that the F- 35s would be operated out of the Nevatim air force base in the Negev.
News of the possible procurement of a second squadron comes amid increasing speculation that Israel is preparing to launch an aerial strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In recent years, the IAF has invested in qualifying some of its older model aircraft for long-range strike missions. In addition to the F-15I and F-16I, the IAF has reportedly already qualified an additional two F-15 squadrons for long-range missions armed with smart bombs and conformal fuel tanks.
The IAF is also moving forward with the Barak 2020 program aimed at extending the lifespan of its F-16 C/D models to the next decade.
The first aircraft arrived in the 1980s.
The upgrades include the installation of new systems for avionics, mission-debriefing and flight-control system.
The aircraft will also be fitted with new central display units and high-resolution screens aimed at increasing pilots’ situational awareness.

Hmmm.

If this sale goes through (and it should quite easily, I mean seriously) then any spots unfilled by the UK or the Italians will be made up in full and with the Japanese buy then the program is on track to be a best seller.  We haven't even talked about what Singapore is going to do yet either.

Nay sayers just caught another black eye.  Whoever is pulling the strings of this program is brilliant, for every set back it appears that rays of sunshine blot it out with a quickness.

Elevated Causeway System. A sea base work around?

Elevated Causeway System-Modular.

Are we being smart in our approach to sea basing?

Since this is in essence a Marine Corps centric attempt to solve the ship to shore logistics problem, it can be forgiven for seeing this as a connector problem for use during an amphibious assault.

But lets be honest.

Even a large scale assault will bring resources to bear that will render the need for a sea base redundant.

Of course that is during the assault phase.  But what about the more obvious issues.  What about the need to provide port facilities during a time of natural disaster?  What about humanitarian assistance?

Those will be the times when the sea base will be used most often.  And the optimum solution isn't a group of ships, the optimum solution will be to further develop the Elevated Causeway System-Modular and get it to be easier to setup, quicker to deploy and if necessary have enough in storage to allow them to be left behind when the "first responders" leave/redeploy.

If necessary, Navy Research should be turned loose to tackle this issue AND money dedicated to building MLP's and other sea basing ships should be reprogrammed toward amphibious lift.  Money is tight and money should be spent for essentials.  Sea Base as its currently planned can wait.

The Elevated Causeway System is a nice, cheaper workaround.

*Note*

My friend over at Think Defence has a couple of articles that point out the history of the elevated causeway AND offer another fascinating work around for the problem of unloading our MPS ships without the high cost of LCACs...the MEXEFLOTE.  Check out the articles here and here .

The main point of all this is simple.  Our allies have solved parts of the ship to shore problem, perhaps we need to rethink the sea base.  Maybe we should simplify it by saying that its an assemblage of ships (anything from an aircraft carrier, amphibs, logistics ships...heck even LCS's) that have transitioned from an assault to providing logistics ashore.  If "kinetic" activity is absent from the equation then that same assembly is by essence of its arrival at the scene of aid, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief etc, properly named a sea base.

F-35 external weapons stores...

On Feb. 16, 2012, the first external weapons test mission was flown by an F-35A Conventional Takeoff and Landing (CTOL) aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif

David Cenciotti reports that AFSOC lost an airplane.

David Cenciotti's been on a roll lately.  Today he tells about a plane crash in Northern Africa...

On Feb. 18, 2012, a U.S. spy plane crashed six miles from Djibouti International Airport during “a routine flight.” As a consequence, all four U.S. military personnel on board, belonging to the 319th and 34th Special Operations Squadrons, and to the 25th Intelligence Squadron, both based at Hurlburt field, Fla., died.
The accidednt occurred around 8.00 PM LT.
As usual in similar cases, a special investigation team has been dispatched to determine the cause of the crash.
Noteworthy, the doomed military plane was a U-28A, that is equipped with 21 such aircraft to perform intra-theater transport of small numbers of special operations troops.
The U-28A (where “U” prefix stands for “utilitarian”), purchased at a unit price of 3.5 million USD from the Swiss company Pilatus, is a militarized version of the PC-12. Although much similar in terms of basic design as the civilian plane, the U-28A is equipped with special navigation equipment, weather radar and other undisclosed equipment.
The plane has a crew of two (even if  can be flown by one pilot only) and it is able to operate from short and unimproved runway surfaces
According to the information released by the Air Force Special Operations Command, depending  on the internal configuration, the aircraft can carry up to nine passengers, or about 3,000 pounds of cargo.
Hard to say what the type of mission the aircraft was flying from Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. forward operating base involved in the recent Special Forces raid to free two Western worker in Somalia, but, according to the first rumors, it looks like the aircraft did not crash as a consequence of any hostile act.

Bad day for AFSOC.

They don't talk like SEALs so we'll never know what mission they were on.

That's a good thing.

Hearts go out to the families and victims.

*NOTE*
Maybe its time to reclassify Djibouti.  11th MEU just lost a Corpsman to training in that area and now we have an airplane go down.  Its quite obvious that the secret war has moved to that continent.  It seems to me that Djibouti is at the very least a hazardous location if not actually part of the war zone.

Cops kill another Marine. Are they scared of the scarlet and gold?

I caught this on Military.com and to be honest I missed the uproar.  

Forgive me.

Go there to read the whole story but check out this statement by the Marine's Commanding Officer.

Loggins' commanding officer, Col. Nicholas Marano, countered back with a bruising statement issued to the media: "While I am confident they will do the right thing in the end, I am less than satisfied with the official response from the City of San Clemente and Orange County. Many of the statements made concerning Manny Loggins' character over the past few days are incorrect and deeply hurtful to an already grieving family."

Col. Marano gets a big OOHRAAAH from me.

But my question to the greater community is this.  Have statements from the Dept. of Homeland Security made local police forces so afraid of service members that they're going into a shoot first mode?

It appears to me that that might be the case.

If it is then liberty instructions to the Marines here in the states need to be changed.  Vets need to be warned.  Oh and before you accuse me of being alarmist, remember that we've only seen a few of the dispatches that have been sent from DHS to local departments, not the full documents with regards to service members and vets becoming threats because of their training.

This trend of police shooting Marines is disturbing.

Monday Funny.

A dad buys a lie detector robot that slaps people when they lie. He decides to test it at dinner.

"Son, where were you today?"
The son says "at school dad."
Robot slaps the son!

"Ok, I watched a dvd at my friends house!" the son says
"What dvd?" asks the father
"Toy story."
Robot slaps the son again!
"Ok, it was a porno" cries the son.

"What!? When I was your age I didn't know what porn was" says the dad.
Robot slaps the dad!

Mom laughs "HaHaHa! He's certainly your son."
Robot slaps the mom!

Awkward Silence

Breaking News from David Cenciotti's website. 2 Italian Marines in Indian custody!

Wow.

From David's site.

Two Italian Navy riflemen belonging to the San Marco Battalion, are currently under custody in India pending the investigation about the alleged killing of two Indian fishermen 30 miles off the southern Indian coast on Feb. 15.
The two military were on board the merchant ship Enrica Lexie as Military Security Team on Italian ships in areas under threat of pirates. Although the episode is still under investigation, the Italian Navy explained in an official statement that at about 12.30PM  Italian Time, the merchant ship was approached by a suspect vessel with armed sailors that did not respond to warning signs.
In compliance with the stardand procedures, the security team on board the Enrica Lexie fired three sets of warning shots for deterrence whose effect was to discourage the pirates. The alleged pirate boat departed from the Italian merchant ship without signs “of obvious onboard damages.”
However, two fishermen died and Indian authorities denied that any of the crew members of the “suspect” vessel was armed.

This is not going to end well unless some adults take charge with a quickness.

31st MEU concludes Cobra Gold 2012