200th flight for F-35B test aircraft BF-3

NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. – U.S. Marine Corps test pilot Lt. Col. Matthew Kelly flies F-35B test aircraft BF-3 in an Atlantic test range May 3. The 200th test flight for BF-3 measured stresses on the aircraft during supersonic maneuvers. The F-35B is the variant of the Joint Strike Fighter for the U.S. Marine Corps, capable of short take-offs and vertical landings for use on amphibious ships or expeditionary airfields to provide air power to the Marine Air-Ground Task Force. The F-35B is undergoing test and evaluation at NAS Patuxent River prior to delivery to the fleet.

F-35 and the Brits.

Today is the day that the Brits finally decide (again) which version of the F-35 they're going to buy.

Everyone and their mother has been writing me sending me articles about the expected decision.

Quite honestly.

I don't care anymore.

What this is about isn't about their choice of airplane.  This is about the British people, their place in the world, how they see themselves, how we see them and what they actually are.

Just like everyone else I'll post the decision but (sorry my friends across the pond...I know you think I Brit bash but this is gonna be vicious) its going to be about the Brit people, its governement and its fall from world power to world disgrace.

Its gonna be a bumpy ride.  I can't wait to hear the official decision and official explanation.

via British Forces News.

Ministers are expected to confirm the choice of fighter aircraft for the Royal Navy's new carriers today - jump jets.
They have been considering whether to do a U-Turn and scrap a decision taken less than two years ago to move to a “cats and traps” take off and landing system for the carriers for the F35-C - or conventional version - Joint Strike Fighter.
The original choice of aircraft was a centrepiece of the Strategic Defence and Security Review in October 2010 and trumpeted by David Cameron as the best option. Since then the projected bill for converting the carriers has risen from four hundred million pounds to two billion.
If the government does opt for the short-take-off-vertical-landing option, it would mean switching back to the F35-B fighter, which has a shorter range and carries fewer weapons. It would also mean the UK's carrier fighter aircraft could not fly from French and American carriers.
It comes at a time when ministers want to be seen as keeping costs under control at the Ministry of Defence. A decision to order jump jets would also bring the carriers into operational service far sooner than was first envisaged.

An LCS rebuttal. Guest Post.

Remember this post I did on the LCS?  I wondered aloud about whether or not we were seeing the rebirth of the original destroyer...a PT Boat killer.

Well Lane responded to that post and I thought that response was so outstanding that I felt it needed to be a blog entry all its own.  Check it out below...

Sol to answer your question no we're not seeing a rebirth of the torpedo boat destroyer. The torpedo as a primary small craft (and ship) based weapon was replaced by the guided missile over 40 years ago.

LCS is intended to deal with "swarms" of small boats. This is ridiculous on multiple levels. The first one is what nation is going to attack us with swarms of small boats other than Iran? The answer is none. The reason for this is that you come up with attacking navies with small boats when that's in fact all you've got since you've isolated yourself from the world community and don't have access to anything else.

Another reason it's ridiculous is that LCS is going to be armed with a 3.5 range missile to deal with small boats. There are literally dozens of systems with a greater range than 3.5 miles that can be carried by small boats.

More importantly is that the main small craft threat isn't a bunch of speed boats armed with RPG's, machine guns, or explosives for suicide attacks but rather actual guided missile boats that have LCS both seriously out ranged and can as fast or faster.

Any basic surface combatant from a missile boat, corvette, frigate, etc., should be able to deal with the modest threat of speed boats given the main surface threat continues to be anti ship missiles launched by boats, ships, aircraft, etc.

LCS is frankly a totally flawed concept on myriad levels. The entire notion of swapping modules has been thrown out by the USN because the modules are too expensive. So in effect each LCS will be a single role ship. This assumes they any of the modules to eventually work as none do at present nor are projected to work any time soon.
LCS simply seems to be about putting large numbers of sexy hulls in the water so surface warfare officers have a greater chance to get their tickets punched. The only real utility of the ships is that they carry 2 helicopters. The fact we have to spend $500+ million for them plus the additional cost of the module(s) in order to carry 140+ knot helicopters around at 40+ knots is absurd.

The one thing in that video that interested me, however, was the projection that LCS can go 1,000nm at 40+ knots. That's one single day of operations at max speed. In effect the USN took the original Street fighter concept of a 500 or so ton fast boat added two helicopters and came up with a 3,000 ton speed boat.

In comparison the rest of the world builds 3,000 ton general purpose frigates that carry 1 or 2 helicopters at lower cost but can also undertake various things LCS can not.

LCS has extremely little ability to deal with surface threats. Assuming they get the ASW module to work only ships with this module have ASW capacity. The ships have extremely limited defense against aerial threats. They can't escort other ships, they're not equipped to do radar picket, naval gunfire support, etc. On top of all this they're far less survivable than a normal warship.

Frankly the USN is out of it's mind. They not only designed single role ships that require each separate combat module to be integrated but then went and bought two different classes each with it's own systems.

Worse they are giving up having small cost effective patrol and mine warfare craft in favor of an ill equipped over priced frigate sized speed boat. By doing away with general purpose frigates they're forcing every real mission to be performed by a DDG. Moreover, every single DDG we have is a large expensive AEGIS equipped ship. It's ridiculous.

It's not just LCS. Instead of putting a couple of the new guns on a cost effective NGS ship they put them on a 15,000 ton cruiser that costs $6 billion. Even more ironic they may end up buying more DDG-1000's because they're cheaper to operate than a DDG-51 III, the DDG-51 III is going to cost a lot more than anyone thought, and DDG-1000 performs shallow water asw far better.

I'm still waivering but he makes a strong case.

A very strong case that the LCS concept is fucked up from the floor up.

 

Blog Field Day.

Cleaning up the Blog a bit.

List of changes....

1.  Dynamic Views, YouTube Channel, Scribd and Twitter links are all located underneath the photo at the top of the page.
2.  Popular posts widget has been added to the side of the page.
3.  Blog archive has been added.
4.  Blog list has been scrubbed.
5.  Picaso image has been added.
6.  Post titles will be more descriptive.

More to come.

Fangs out. Another Joe Copalman Special.

Nigel for President.

NIMR Multi-Mission Vehicle

NIMR Multi-Mission Vehicle...Thanks for the info Jonathan!

Devil Doc wins the Silver Star.

This guy is hardcore.  Check out this part of the story...

Another incident Nov. 8, 2010, involved the treatment of an Afghan National Army soldier who stepped on an IED. Angell was following a Marine handling a minesweeper to get to the wounded soldier when the Marine struck an IED. Angell assessed the Marine’s injury before moving toward the soldier, where he applied tourniquets to both amputated legs, administered intravenous fluids and stabilized the soldier. As he was treating the soldier, an explosive ordnance disposal Marine working onsite also struck an IED, receiving minor blast injuries. After treating the three injured men and ensuring the safe evacuation of the soldier, a firefight broke out, resulting in a local resident being shot in the head. Angell treated the civilian promptly and saved his life.
Angell wasn’t done yet. On Dec. 20, 2010, it was his combat skills that shined. During a firefight, Angell killed two insurgents at distances up to 400 meters. As the firefight continued, Angell also acted as the assistant mortar gunner. By the end of the day, he had fired 17 mortar rounds at enemy positions.

Read the rest of the story here.  A life taker and a life saver.  Wow.