I'm surprised this sale was approved.

The first of twenty Block 52 F-16s for Egypt completed its first flight on 6 April 2012 from NAS Fort Worth JRB. Called Peace Vector VII, the latest purchase of F-16s by Egypt includes sixteen single-seat and four two-seat versions. Deliveries will begin later this year.

Company's sell products.

So Lockheed Martin can't be blamed for this sale of advanced fighters to Egypt...but the State Dept can.

Why would they sell these advanced jets to Egypt when the Muslim Brotherhood is about to take over?

When they held US Aid workers prisoner?

When we really don't know the future of that country.  This one is a mystery.

A build up right before our eyes.

Marines from 3rd Battalion, 14th Marines don their packs and prepare for in-processing after arriving in Agadir, Morocco, April 7 to support Exercise African Lion 2012. These Marines are responsible for overseeing the field training portion of the exercise. AL-12 is a U.S. African Command-sponsored, Marine Forces Africa-led exercise involving various types of training including command post, live-fire and maneuvering, peace support operations, an intelligence capacity building seminar, aerial refueling/low-level flight raining, as well as medical and dental assistance projects. AL-12 will promote multi-national cooperation and mutual understanding of each nation's military tactics and procedures.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Tyler Main)

African Lion.

Camp Lemonnier.

Two MEU's operating in Central Command's area of operations.

Two carriers operating in Central Command's area of operations.

Images at Camp Lemonnier have been frozen.  As a matter of fact images of the region have been frozen for at least the past two weeks (check Google Earth and the exact same pic from almost a month ago of Camp Lemonnier is still shown...not one airplane has moved....they're all in the same spots).

We're seeing a military buildup right before our eyes.  Notice I haven't included what Army units are doing.  Nor have I listed USAF or SOCOM assets.

Something seems to be brewing, I just can't put my finger on it.

Generation Kill...

I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes; If you fuck with me, I'll kill you all. - US Marine General James Mattis, to Iraqi tribal leader

 

The Buccaneer Aviation Group Rollout

Via UK Air Show Review

I don't know if this is a public or private group but they're worthy of support either way.  Its a cliche but if you forget it, you'll repeat it.  Latest evidence is Afghanistan.  We sought to fight terrorist, got roped into nation building and repeated the mistakes that the Russians made.  But I'm off on a tangent.  If you get a chance check out UK Aviation Review.  I think you'll really like their site.

Super Jeep...

via Jalopnik

Check out this guys video page.

Jaba149  has some of the best videos on military aviation that I've seen on the web.  If you're not a subscriber then you're wrong.

LCS jacked up. Visby too small. How about Absalon?

The Absalon as an LCS replacement.  via Wikipedia.

General characteristics
Class and type:	Absalon class flexible support ship
Displacement:	6,300 tonnes
Length:	137.6 m (451 ft 5 in)
Beam:	19.5 m (64 ft 0 in)
Draft:	6.3 m (20 ft 8 in)
Propulsion:	2 × MTU 8000 M70 diesel engines; two shafts 22,300 bhp (16.4 MW)
Speed:	24 knots (44 km/h)
Range:	9,000 nmi (17,000 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h)
Boats and landing craft carried:	2 × SB90E LCP 2 × RHIBs
Complement:	169
Sensors and processing systems:	Thales SMART-S Mk2 3D volume search radar Terma Scanter 2100 surface search radar Atlas ASO 94 sonar 4 Saab CEROS 200 fire control radars ES-3701 Tactical Radar Electronic Support Measures (ESM)
Electronic warfare and decoys:	4 × 12-barrelled Terma DL-12T 130 mm decoy launchers 2 × 6-barrelled Terma DL-6T 130 mm decoy launchers Seagnat Mark 36 SRBOC
Armament:	1 × 5 inch (127 mm)/54 Mark 45 mod 4 gun 7 × 12.7 mm Heavy machine gun 3 × VLS with up to 36 RIM-162 ESSM/RIM-7 Sea Sparrow (Mk 56/Mk 48 VLS) 8-16 × Harpoon Block II SSM 2 × Oerlikon Millennium 35 mm Naval Revolver Gun Systems CIWS MU90 Impact ASW torpedoes 4 × Stinger Point-defence SAM
Aircraft carried:	2 × EH-101[1] or 2 × Westland Lynx
Aviation facilities:	Aft helicopter deck and hangars

This ship my friends is damn near perfect for what I see as the future of Naval Warfare.

Imagine taking your fleet of these ships and instead of making them all multi-mission, have a certain number specialize in a particular form of warfare.

You would theoretically have one squadron designated as pure frigates to operate with the fleet...another squadron to assist in Special Ops missions...another for Riverines...Amphibious Ops...etc...

Instead of buying a whole slew of mission modules you'd buy X number for each squadron to fit their specialization.

And don't hit me with the not built here.  Lockheed Martin, Northop and others can build it in their ship yards!

Follow up: Gunners Position on Navy Combat Support Helicopters.

Note the field of fire  for the gunner in the above photos

Thanks for the pics Jesse!

I did a post a couple of days ago lavishing much praise on this hidden jewel...Navy Combat Support Helo Squadrons.

The concept is sound, the firepower they can potentially bring to a fight unmistakable but there is one nagging problem.

The gunners station and his arc of fire.  The Navy took a huge leap forward with the installation of the Army's ESSS kit.  Again, the only issue I have with the system is the restrictions it paces on the gunner and his arc of fire. 

A couple of off the shelf systems might be a workaround for a select set of helicopters were the primary mission will be set at Combat Support and Rescue.

The first off the shelf solution might be the Army's universal weapons mount for the Kiowa.  You'll still have limited fields of fire but it should open it up a bit...especially if they're able to mount it at the rear of the cabin.

RAMCIS is the next solution.  The good.  It'll block the field of fire for only one of the gunners.  The even better good is that you'll have a low cost multi-mission cannon that could imobilize enemy fast boats with one shot.  The manufacturer states that it can penetrate several feet of concrete so this should be darn effective on rubber/fiberglass boats.  The bad.  I have no idea how the targeting works or if it could even hit a moving target.  It was designed to kill mines.  The worse still.  It looks heavy as all outdoors.

Whether they fix or not, the Navy is doing good things...they should brag about their warfighting capability a bit more.

Sidenote:  If there isn't room on carriers to get these Squadrons to the fight then the USMC/USN and NAVAIR needs to workout a way to get these helos out to the amphibs. I'd also like to see them working hand in hand with the Riverines...and the possibility of them being assigned to the Coast Guard to augment their HITRON teams is mouth watering.