Pic of the Day. July 1, 2010.

via Joe Stremph's Flickr page.

First flight of the Euro-Hawk.

Exercise High Sierra 2010.

Exercise High Sierra 2010
Exercise High Sierra conducted from 14 June to 2 July represents the last three weeks of the F/A-18 operational conversion course, which converts fighter pilots from the Hawk Mk127 Lead-in-fighter aircraft to the F/A-18 Hornet.

Eight pilots from No. 2 Operational Conversion Squadron, part of the RAAF’s Air Combat Group at RAAF Base Williamtown in New South Wales, are put through their paces during the Exercise prior to graduation. More than 150 Air Force personnel, F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets, PC9 forward air control support aircraft and Mk127 Hawk lead-in fighters will be at RAAF Base Townsville supporting the Exercise.

An F/A-18 Hornet takes off for a sortie during Exercise High Sierra as another F/A-18 Hornet taxis to the runway for its turn to head for the skies.

An F/A-18 Hornet attached to 2 Operational Conversion Unit taxis toward the runway as a PC9 Forward Air Control aircraft takes to the skies for a mission during Exercise High Sierra.

An F/A-18 Hornet from 2 Operational Conversion Unit prepares to leave the ordinance loading area to conduct a mission during Exercise High Sierra.

More on the Merlin TRAP mission.

ThinkDefence ties the final pieces of this story together. 

Digital Camo on the EFV?

http://news.yahoo.com/video/sandiego-channel8-15751279/new-assault-vehicle-storms-the-beach-at-camp-pendleton-20637266

Follow the link to watch a local news report on the EFV.  Watch carefully and you'll see the first US vehicle (I believe) outfitted in digital camo!  Pretty wild.

UPDATE!
Marcase found some screen captures from a Defense News video on the EFV.  You get a better view of the digital camo...

EFV at Pendleton. The info war continues.

Reports are everywhere that the EFV will be canceled in upcoming budget cuts.  But it would appear that the Marine Corps disagrees.

A full scale public relations effort is underway, and the what is the best tool in the toolbox to get the word out that this vehicle is a winner?

The press!  This from the OC Register.

"Similarly to the current vehicle you launch the vehicle from a ship ... it's our forcible entry to get on to the beachhead," said Maj. Shaun Doheney, the deputy director of the Amphibious Vehicle Test Branch at Pendleton, as he and other Marines highlighted the qualities of the new war fighting machine to the media.
The EFV is faster in the water than its predecessor -- traveling at 20 to 25 knots at sea compared with five to seven knots – and its abilities on land will help today's Marines stay safer plus give them more firepower, officials said.
"It's the same fighting concept with this vehicle, but it is the capabilities that this vehicle brings that are significantly more advanced," Doheney said.
The new vehicle's lethality is another aspect Marine officials pushed on Tuesday, saying the 17 Marines it can carry along with three operators won't necessarily have to dismount to defeat every threat they encounter in battle.
"The more I can keep them buttoned up, the more mobile that I can keep them, the less susceptible the Marines are to getting killed by bad guys," said EFV program manager Col. Keith Moore.

Read the entire article and look carefully at the attached photos on their site.  Several design changes have occurred.  I don't know if they're simply cosmetic or if they actually enhance performance but the differences between the EFV and the legacy AAV are startling.

All this leads to a nagging question.  If the EFV doesn't make it across the finish line, how far along are BAE and the Marine Corps with an upgrade package for the AAV?

If canceled will the advances found in the EFV flow to the AAV?

The next few months are going to be interesting.  More than any other weapon system, the EFV/AAV represent the core amphibious assault mission that  is the hallmark of the Marines.  If the EFV is canceled and the AAV allowed to retire without replacement then that will signify a serious change in the way that the Marines conduct operations.

Marine Operating Concepts. Restricted Distribution C.

Sgt. C. a regular commenter on SNAFU! caught something that escaped my notice.  The Marine Operating Concepts is classed Restricted Distribution C.  His words...

Interesting that it has the fairly restrictive Distribution C statement, but it is on a website anyone can go to. Not even an HTTPS. Other documents with the same statement are not only protected by having to have a CAC/PKI to access the site they're on, they also will only send a download link on request from your .mil email.
Seems to me they want this "out there".

What is Restricted Distribution C?  This definition (the best I could find) is from the Naval Post Graduate School.

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT C

Distribution authorized to U.S. Government Agencies and their contractors (fill in reason) (date of determination). Other requests for this document shall be referred to (insert controlling DoD office).

Distribution statement C may be used on unclassified and classified technical documents.

Reasons for assigning distribution statement C include:

Foreign Government Information                 Same as distribution statement B.

Critical Technology                                        Same as distribution statement B.

Software Documentation                               Same as distribution statement B.

Administrative or Operational Use   Same as distribution statement B.

Specific Authority                                          Same as distribution statement B.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing top secret here.  But...it was deemed to have a limited 'spread' but for some reason, its been given wide distribution....

I can see it now.

Conway in a room with 20 of his colleagues, smoking cigars and drinking whiskey plotting the next move on Capital Hill.

The wider release of this document is definitely part of the public relations war.  This will get good!

The Marine Corps is gearing up for the budget battle.

When Headquarters Marine Corps starts putting out Cliff Notes like these to demonstrate how valuable and what a bargain the Corps is to the nation, then you can bet that the conversations in the "Generals Club" have been pretty intense.

Seems like another fight for survival is about to erupt.  Lord have mercy on the Honorable Mr. Gates, cause he's just unleashed the hounds of budget war!

In the Black - Moc

In the Black (Amphib Force)

In the Black (Amphib Ships)

Greg Grant at Defense Tech got the MOC!

He's money in the bank.  This is courtesy of Greg and DT.

usmcoperatingconcept

It was a TRAP mission.

Remember this post?  In it a couple of people made the comment that this wasn't a TRAP (Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel) mission and that we were foolish for even thinking that it might be.

Seems like a certain Gunnery Sergeant has a different take on things.  This from Gunny Williams.

Heavy-lift Helos Haul Big Missions in Afghanistan 

6/26/2010  By Gunnery Sgt. Steven Williams  , 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (FWD) 

 

CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan  — A CH-53E Super Stallion flew across the dawning sun here June 26 as it returned with an 18,000-pound piece of vital cargo slung beneath its belly. The sight of the aircraft against the painted morning sky was impressive on two accounts – the vision of the silhouetted helicopter floating in Afghanistan’s vibrant dawn, and the fact that the cargo toted below was a United Kingdom Mk3 Merlin (EH-101) helicopter. The Super Stallion, deployed here with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 466, was recovering the aircraft from a forward operating base after the Merlin went down in a non-hostile event. Perhaps the most impressive part of the recovery mission – HMH-466 pulled it off with less than 18 hours notice.
“In order for it to go down,” Lt. Col. Mitch Cassell, the HMH-466 Commanding Officer, explained, “it required the entire squadron to throw themselves behind the lift.”
The planning and preparation involved in outfitting a CH-53E to carry tens of thousands of pounds is extensive and requires meticulous attention to detail. Pilots and crew in the ready room who weren’t even flying the mission planned it. An entire maintenance department jumped into action pulling off 2,000 pounds worth of gear, including the auxiliary fuel tanks, fuel probe, troop seats, ramp, cargo wench and utility hoist. “We had to remove all that equipment from our aircraft to make it light enough to lift the stricken Mk3 Merlin,” said Cassell.

The mission is called TRAP – Tactical Recovery of Aircraft or Personnel – a mission Marines actively train for all the time. However, very few real world TRAP missions have ever been conducted. Conducting one TRAP during a deployment is rare. Twice is practically unheard of… until now. In addition to the Mk3 Merlin mission, HMH-466 conducted an earlier TRAP mission to recover a U.S. Army MH-47G Chinook helicopter May 15 that made a hard landing near Kandahar.

This mission was also conducted with less than 24 hours notice and followed many of the same planning and execution processes, “but more weight had to be removed from our aircraft because the Chinook was much heavier than the Merlin” said Cassell. To successfully lift the Chinook, over 5,600 pounds of equipment had to be removed from the CH-53E helicopter.
“The fact that an Army unit was able to call across the boundaries to ask the Marine Corps to support a mission is pretty remarkable," said Lt. Col. Timothy Sheyda, HMH-466’s executive officer. “We were able to smoothly interact with their airborne assets on station, as well as their ground team which was at the site, and their command and control system that was in place.”
The CH-53E squadron is getting the call on these big missions because, according to Sheyda “there are only three aircraft in the world that could possibly do that lift.” The other two besides the CH-53 are the Russian-made MI-26 Halo and the CH-47 Chinook. Although those aircraft are available in the area, “the Marine Corps is the only service capable of reconfiguring its aircraft and performing the mission on such short notice.”
But the greatest accomplishment extends beyond the rescued aircraft being delivered to their respective owners. The capability the HMH-466 Marines have to plan, organize and execute these operations with very limited advance notice speaks to their teamwork and dedication.
“The fact that a team can throw a plan together in less than 24 hours to do a mission really validates the Marine Corps planning process,” Sheyda exclaimed. “This process will have to be passed on to future generations.”
He went on to say, “Marines are trained to be light, agile, quick and lethal. In this case, we were able to do all of those things and effectively accomplish our mission in a short timeline. That’s how we operate.”
At the end of the summer, HMH-466 will return to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., and pass off their responsibilities to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361. As HMH-466 flies off into the sunset, HMH-361 picks up a “heavy” mission supporting the Afghan National Security and NATO Forces as the “heavy haulers” of southern Afghanistan.

Mystery semi solved.

It was a TRAP.

We now know that in addition to a Merlin ------ a CH-47 Chinook was also recovered (different time frame, same deployment).

What we don't know is what caused the helicopters to go down (the commenters stated that the Merlin just performed a hard landing...considering how erroneous their previous info was I highly doubt that part of their story too)

More digging coming.