F-35C High Speed Fly-by

Suck on that AW!

Mythical Fleet Part 2. Sea Control Ship (Littoral)

The next thing my mythical fleet needs is a mothership/sea control/littoral support ship.  My choice?  The Mistral class.

Specs from Wikipedia...

General characteristics
Type:	landing platform helicopter
Displacement:	16,500 tonnes (empty) 21,300 tonnes (full load) 32,300 tonnes (with ballasts)
Length:	199 m (653 ft)
Beam:	32 m (105 ft)
Draught:	6.3 m (21 ft)
Installed power:	3 Wärtsilä diesels-alternators 16 V32 (6.2 MW) + 1 Wärtsilä Vaasa auxiliary diesel-alternator 18V200 (3 MW)
Propulsion:	2 Mermaid azimuth thrusters (2 × 7 MW), 2 5-bladed propellers
Speed:	18.8 knots (35 km/h)
Range:	10,800 km (5,800 nmi) at 18 knots (33 km/h) 19,800 kilometres (10,700 nmi) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Boats and landing craft carried:	4 CTM (chaland de transport de matériel) alternatively, 2 LCAC (Landing Craft, Air Cushion)
Capacity:	59 vehicles (including 13 Leclerc tanks) or a 40-strong Leclerc tank battalion
Troops:	900 (short duration) 450 (long durations) 150 (serving as operational headquarters)
Complement:	20 officers, 80 petty officers, 60 quarter-masters
Sensors and processing systems:	DRBN-38A Decca Bridgemaster E250 navigation radar MRR3D-NG air/surface sentry radar 2 optronic fire control systems
Armament:	2 x Simbad systems 4 x 12.7 mm M2-HB Browning machine guns
Aircraft carried:	16 heavy or 35 light helicopters
Aviation facilities:	6 helicopter landing spots

The vehicle capacity is really over kill, in my vision it'll be used for enhanced aviation and munitions storage.  I'd fill this ship with Navy MH-60's armed to the gills and then I'd stuff the back end with Riverines and make this a US Navy Special Ops platform.

SOCOM would get its mothership, Riverines would get its mothership and NAVAIR would get a sea control beast from hell.  MH-60's patrolling off the coast of Africa could shut down piracy in a week.  In addition you'd have Riverines running patrols and SOCOM conducting raids from its deck.

What ship would be canned in order to bring this true mult-role ship to the fleet? 

LCS.

What capability would we lose?

Mine hunting.  Every other trick the LCS was expected to perform would be covered by these Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH).  Its not much of a stretch either.  They displace less than a San Antonio Class LPD so they would be considered relatively small ships.  I envision a total of 4 being procured.

Gunfighters at sunset...

The sun sets as UH-1Y Huey crews with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 369, the "Gunfighters," fly across the flight line on Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, April 1. The Gunfighters continued combat operations while celebrating their 40th anniversary(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Lisa Tourtelot).

NOTE:

I wish to all that's right in the world that Marine Corps Combat Photographers would standardize on a simple standard.  Place the name of the Combat Photographer at the end of the caption.  Too many times I'm seeing great shots like this and no credit can be given because the name isn't included.  Come on PAO's.  You can make this happen!
Thank You!

Gwetzel and Gbloore's art.

Gwetzel's work...

And now Gbloore's work...

Both are great photographers and both have been kind enough to share there work.  The only thing I would ask is that if you use their photos then at least be kind enough to credit them.  If you don't then we'll see amazing photos like those above plastered with watermarks or sold to the public instead of being shared freely.

Keep the internet free.  Follow the Wikipedia Commons Code!

Sidenote:  The British and a few of our other allies have detachments here in the US that rival any forces that we have in there countries.  Interesting.

Piranha USV Concept

Via Gizmag.

I won't reinvent the wheel.  Go to Gizmag to read their article on this waterborne UV.  My question is basically this.  What purpose will surface UVs fill?  Just like the search for ground unmanned vehicles I just don't see these taking off.  I could easily be wrong but I just don't see the niche that they're gonna fill.  I mean seriously...the Army's been looking at these for over a decade and they're relegated to backpack sized robots.  The Navy's been searching too and haven't hit on anything.

But again, I could be wrong.  Here's the link to the company website for more info.

Follow up: Lies, Damn Lies and Wheeler Lies!

Wheeler took a post of mine and played with the title to make it fit his latest for Time Magazine.  Read it for yourself but its another Sweetman/Horde special.

But even better is the way that Bruce McQuain from Black Five pushes back on the nonsense...

It would be nice to know what cost is being quoted on the F-35 here.  Most use Unit Recurring Flyaway Cost (URF) which is no where near what is being quoted. Is it TOC or Total Ownership Cost?  Life Cycle Cost? Acquisition Cost? (PAUC)  Which is it?
Secondly, the F-35 comes mission capable (i.e. the engine is included in the URF price).  That is not true of the legacy 4th generation fighters.  Or to simplify, the F-35 is a "combo meal" not an ala carte "do you want fries with that" meal.

Bruce is too much of a gentleman to state what's actually on his mind.  Let me fill in the gaps...

Presence Patrol.

Afghan children walk alongside Lance Cpl. Jacob Kartchner, a team leader with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and 28-year-old native of Long Beach, Calif., in the hopes of receiving candy from Kartchner as he patrols with fellow Marines and Afghan National Police outside the Hazar Joft Bazaar here, April 8, 2012. On the patrol, the Kilo Co. Marines partnered with members of the ANP to maintain security in and around the bazaar, one of the busiest commercial centers in Helmand province's Garmsir district. Their partnership is a vital part of preparing the Afghan National Security Forces to assume lead security responsibility in Garmsir.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Reece Lodder)

Please note that you don't see an Afghan Policeman in the picture.  That's what I call outstanding force protection.

SAAB tries to play in F-35 territory.

via Alert 5 from The Local.se (English Version).

An aggressive marketing campaign from Swedish defence firm Saab is extolling the virtues of weapons that help users to ”see first – kill first” and can be adjusted to focus specifically on ”soft targets”. 
At a weapons fair in Qatar in late March, the company informed potential buyers that its Gripen fighter planes guaranteed a high ”death ratio”, newspaper Expressen reports.

In its marketing materials, the firm also boasts that its Bill 2 anti-tank guided weapon contains a ”soft target mode” that can be used to hone in on civilian houses, cars, and groups of people.

Asked about the JAS 39 Gripen's ”See first – Kill first” slogan, Saab spokeswoman Marie Karlsson told Expressen:

”I actually don’t know what we were thinking when we used those words. I wasn’t involved in making that judgment or taking that decision,” she said.

Pressed further, she declined to criticize the company’s choice of wording.

”We are after all a defence and security company working with defence-related products. Like any other company, we make use of marketing messages.”

But Henrik Westander at PR agency Westander Publicitet & Påverkan lamented the fact that very little appeared to have changed in the defence industry in marketing terms over the last three decades.

”I remember how [Swedish defence firm] Bofors marketed an anti-aircraft gun in the United States in the 1980s using an image of a sharp-shooting cowboy drawing both his pistols at the same time.

"They wanted to give the impression that it was all a game, and it’s still like that now,” he told Expresssen.

Just plain wow.

The F-35 is single handed changing the fighter industry.  You can (and the critics will) attempt to question the meaning behind this ad campaign but its pretty evident that every 4th gen fighter manufacturer on this planet is trying to copying/match the F-35's abilities.

They'll fail.

But they'll try.

See first-kill first?  That's straight out of the stealth handbook.  SAAB has always been a plucky little fighter but this is pathetic.  They're not playing to their stregnths.

All they're actually doing is highlighting how far behind the F-35 they really are.

I love it.

Sidenote:  The above video is interesting.  Its labeled as a heavy load but its just barely more than a F-35A carries internally.  Add two pylons for the Meteor missiles and you're equaling it without any strain.  I guess heavy is relative.