Dueling articles.

Well I was waiting for the duel to start up again and it looks like we have Information Dissemination and Early Warning picking up the boxing gloves.

While we'll have to wait and see who's right and wrong, I found these to be the 'operative' passages from both articles.

This from ID's article...

And with the higher price, we almost certainly will buy fewer airframes. This is one part of Robert Gates legacy in waiting few want to acknowledge exists.

And from EW....

The official projections are so wildly wrong that the Senate Armed Services Committee directed last week, "cost estimates developed for baseline descriptions and budgetary purposes shall not become the basis for negotiations with contractors and the obligations of funds." Translation: the government's cost estimates for F-35 and other major weapons programs threaten to drive up costs if negotiators take them seriously, rather than holding them down. Further evidence of this fact will become available in June, when the government reveals that F-35s in the next production lot are priced about 25% below what Pentagon estimators predicted. Needless to say, the estimators aren't answering questions about how they came up with their ridiculous guess-timates.

I'll wait patiently to see who's right...but if my suspicions prove to be correct (read that to be Air Power Australia mouth piece) then expect a loud and vocal 'intervention'....one of these guys is wrong and needs to be called on it.  Arrogance must be exposed and I'll enjoy doing it.

Australian Light Armored Vehicles.

The Australian Army has this listed on their site under Project Land 112.  Their classification system is confusing.  How they cobble that together with images of the ASLAV operating and deploying to Afghanistan is beyond me.

Update*
Army-Technology.com has a news release that Project Land 112 is the designation of an upgrade program for the ASLAV.  More info here.  It would seem that a Australia is embarking on a similar upgrade path that led the Marine Corps to the LAV-25A2.

An Australian Light Armoured Vehicle gathers dust as it climbs a feature north of Tarin Kowt.

Australian Light Armoured Vehicles provided security with superior firepower during the 18 hr Tor Ghar journey across the Oruzgan and Kandahar desert.

A refurbished Australian Light Armoured Vehicle destined for the 1st Mentoring Task Force rolls onto Afghanistan soil at Multinational Base Tarin Kowt.

Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force New York

A MV -22 Osprey flys out of Corona Park, Queens after completing a helicopter raid. More than 3,000 Marines, Sailors and Coast Guardsmen will be in the area participating in community outreach events and equipment demonstrations. This is the 26th year New York City has hosted the sea services for Fleet Week. 

Marines from Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force New York rush out of MV -22 Osprey while demonstrating a helicopter raid at Rye Playland, May 30. More than 3,000 Marines, Sailors and Coast Guardsmen will be in the area participating in community outreach events and equipment demonstrations. This is the 26th year New York City has hosted the sea services for Fleet Week. 

A CH-46 Sea Knight flys out of Corona Park, Queens after completing a helicopter raid. More than 3,000 Marines, Sailors and Coast Guardsmen will be in the area participating in community outreach events and equipment demonstrations. This is the 26th year New York City has hosted the sea services for Fleet Week.

Wow!

And that's wow in a crazy, amazing, horrifying, nature is a beast kind of way.  Photo from Boing-Boing and its of a sink hole in Guatemala caused by a tropical storm.

Someone needs to be relieved of command.

An unidentified reader sent me this video.  Suffice it to say the boys of S13 violated every rule...I'm surprised a few of them weren't killed.  Watch this and weep at the incompetence.

PS.
I previously stated that the IDF was too gentle in the initial assault. That was before I saw this video. These guys were sent on a suicide mission. No allowance was made for possible resistance and armed with clubs these people were able to repel (for a while) the best Commandos in the Israeli Defense Force. Amazing.

You have got to be kidding me! part 2.

via MSNBC from AP.

Marine aircraft mishap injures 10 at NYC park

NEW YORK - The powerful propellers on a U.S. Marine Corps aircraft doing a Memorial Day demonstration has blown tree branches into people on the ground in a New York City park.

Firefighters say ten people suffered minor injuries.

The Osprey MV-22 aircraft was landing at Staten Island's Clove Lakes Park around 8 a.m. Monday as part of Fleet Week. It's an annual event honoring the U.S. military.

Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Josh Diddams says the wind generated by the aircraft's propellers broke branches off a nearby tree. The branches were swept into some people on the ground.

Firefighters say seven people have been taken to Richmond University Medical Center. Three others refused medical attention.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Just one question.  Who is the dumbass in the Commandant's office that keeps scheduling these dog and pony shows in New York?????  The second most fucked up state (California wins the crown) in the union with few real supporters of the military but they keep sending our guys up their to "thrill the crowds"...AMAZING.

PS.  I found the video.  This was a complete and total CLUSTERFUCK!  

Shayetet 13

Not sure if this is the unit that conducted the raid, but since they're the Israeli's naval specialist I would assume so.  Read more about them on Wikipedia here.  The photo I believe originated on Israeli-Special Forces.net, but its in wide circulation now, so I could be wrong.

This comes at a bad time for both the administration and Israel.  They have been targeted in the latest fallacy of a nuclear free Middle East and the US allowed the resolution to go through.  On the administrations side, they just sent the White House Chief of Staff to Israel to sooth ruffled feathers.

I wonder if this convoy was designed to drive a wedge between the two allies?  Regardless, the Israeli's have been trading land for peace and no longer have any strategic depth (if they had any at all).  This will end badly.

Update 1.  Could this be why the Israeli Commando's walked into a setup?  Read it here.  It seems that US leadership might be caught up in a web of unintended consequences.

Israeli Special Ops raid ships.

More info here.

CBO report on Navy/Marines fighter gap.

Hat tip to the Navy Times (go to there site here..for the article).  This report (below) is a light read and it lays out 4 options for dealing with the fighter shortfall.  Alternative 1 is a no brainer and will probably be followed.  But you can bet Boeing and their Congressional delegations will be pushing for more F/A-18E/F's.
05-27-FighterInventories

Afghanistan. A civil war.

From Marine Corps Times.

In the make-or-break struggle for Kandahar, birthplace of Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgency, U.S. commanders will try to pull off the military equivalent of brain surgery: defeating the militants with minimal use of force.

Its a great read and I recommend you follow the link.  But this article gave rise in me to one unmistakable thought.

We are fighting in a civil war.