What he's really thinking...

Capt. Robert May, commanding officer of Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, speaks with a member of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces on the shores of Morocco during Exercise African Lion 12, April 10, 2012. The training allowed the Marines to introduce the Moroccan troops to the unique capabilities of the AAV, which the Marines drove onto the beach that morning from the USS New York off the coast of Morocco. This exercise is the first event for the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March on a regularly scheduled deployment to serve as a theater reserve and crisis response force.  Photo by Staff Sgt. Robert Fisher

The caption indicates a normal conversation.

The look on the Marines face tells a different story.

What he's really thinking is...

Ok. The LCS is jacked up. What now?

We've been talking about alternatives to the LCS but that misses the real issue.

We're stuck with them so what now?

CDR Salamander has an excellent article on where the LCS is now...read it at his spot but check out this part.

OK - so we will have purchased ~43% of a run of ship without one ... a single one ... FMC mission module in place. If the mission modules shift to the right, as they will probably do, then will we have over half before we even know we can get any fight out of them?

Read the entire article but his leads to the point I'm trying to make.

We will have ships that will sport one 57mm cannon, two 30mm cannons, close in defense cannons and maybe a stinger crew that can pop out on deck to help with the air defense missions if it gets really wild and hairy. In essence we get a powerful Offshore Patrol Vessel or a very weak Corvette.

So I ask again, how do we make these ships useful RIGHT NOW instead of 5 years from now?

The answer is to load them with habitable container modules (you're welcome Think Defence), assign them to SOCOM in each operational area (probably no more than a total of 8 ships...I hope) and we get them into the fight now.

Additionally they could participate in Southern, African and Asian partnership missions with the same habitable container modules but with a different cast of characters...Riverines, US Army Light Infantry, Marines when they're not on float or otherwise assigned, USAF Security Teams and heck even US Coast Guardsmen in the drug interdiction role.

The habitable container module is ready now.  We can do this, all it takes is a little will.   Read about the above module over at SeaBox.


Instant mothership/special operations base/enhanced drug interdiction ship TODAY!  Oh and SOCOM can go on and put the tired USS Ponce to rest.

Sounds like a winning idea to me.

Pic of the day. F-35 in Royal Navy markings!

via Savetheroyalnavy.org by Al Clark @ janetairlines

Rough Seas.

HMS Daring in some rough water.


The Royal Navy is definitely working this ship hard.  


I like it.

Bell Helicopter's 525 Relentless.

Hmmm.

Don't know how I missed this but so did a lot of the aviation big boy news media.

A 16 seat super medium helicopter?  Its obviously designed to battle Sikorsky's S-92 and whatever EADS and Westland have on the market.  Its pretty but I wonder if its enough.  They are right in concentrating on the civilian market.  The Western militaries will be upgrading before they start buying new.  Read about the 525 Relentless here.

On a sidenote this helo reminds me of the 214ST.  I guess evolution is becoming the norm instead of revolution.

Interesting. A one man crime wave.

24th MEU at African Lion 12.

Photos by Cpl. Michael Petersheim

The following photos by Sgt. Richard Blumenstein

Maybe China should feel nervous....

via The Hindu.

The 2012 edition of the annual India-U.S. naval exercise, ‘Malabar,' will be held in the Bay of Bengal from April 7.

Frontline units from both navies will take part in the 10-day exercise, says an official release.

The ‘harbour phase' will begin in Chennai, with both navies taking part in professional seminars. The ‘sea phase,' will encompass a wide spectrum of exercises, ranging from conventional war fight mission to asymmetric warfare. The focus areas will be boarding operations, air defence exercises, helicopter cross-deck operations and co-ordinated anti-submarine warfare.

The U.S. Navy will be represented by ships from the Carrier Task Force (CTF) 70 of the US 7 Fleet based at Yokosuka in Japan. The CTF will include aircraft carrier USS Carl Vision, guided missile cruiser USS Bunkerhill, guided missile destroyer USS Halsey and logistics ship UNNS Bridge. Los Angeles-class submarine USS Louisville and a P3C Orion aircraft will also be involved.

The Indian Navy will be represented by indigenously built guided missile frigate INS Satpur, guided missile destroyers INS Ranvijay and INS Ranvir, missile corvette INS Kulish and fleet tanker INS Shakti. Maritime patrol aircraft Tu-142M and other rotary wing aircraft will also take part in the exercise.

Naval co-operation between the two countries is a long-term relationship. Over the years, the two navies have collaborated in a wide spectrum of activities and exercises to advance the maritime partnership, says the release.

Hmmm.

India just recieved an Akula II attack sub from Russia.

India has placed orders for P-8 aircraft.

They're buying aircraft for an aircraft carrier and other Western Fighters...

And now they have a Carrier Task Force operating with them during a training exercise.

Add to all this the Singapore Defense Chief stating that closer ties between Asian countries and the US should be strengthened through the Association of South East Asian Nations (China is not a member) and you have a reason why China might feel surrounded.

I love it!