Some F-35 news you didn't hear...

This from Defense News.com

U.S. Air Force chief Gen. Norton Schwartz is considerably "more optimistic" than he was this spring about the future of the F-35 Lightning II program given the significant progress being made on the plane's test program
"I am more confident than I was, to be sure," about the F-35A - the Joint Strike Fighter version his service will fly - due to a recent string of testing successes with the jet, Schwartz said during an Aug. 4 meeting with the editorial staff of Defense News and Air Force Times.

Read the whole thing but the Air Force buy is critical.  To hear the Air Force Chief stating such reasoned thought when it comes to the F-35 is a pleasant surprise.

The critics have failed.  This airplane will be placed into full rate production.

Oh and for my boys at Lockheed...go on and destroy the tooling for the F-22...we won't be needing it!

They report, you decide.

This story from FoxNews is...breathtaking.  If the accusations are true then those that state that the Obama administration is weak and apologetic are completely vindicated.

The son of the U.S. Air Force pilot who dropped the first atomic bomb in the history of warfare says the Obama administration's decision to send a U.S. delegation to a ceremony in Japan to mark the 65th anniversary of the attack on Hiroshima is an "unsaid apology" and appears to be an attempt to "rewrite history."

That's just a snippet.  Read the whole thing here.

CH-53K advances.

via Hartford Business.com

The Stratford helicopter maker, a unit of United Technologies Corp. in Hartford, says the new design of the 47-year-old copter has passed muster with military reviewers and is now headed for assembly, testing and evaluation of a K-model prototype of the CH-53.

Hmm.  This re-design seems to either be sliding in under everyone's radar or we're seeing a new trend in future weapons procurement.

Don't go with a clean sheet design, simply upgrade an existing platform to the hilt...If the 53K can escape the bean counters barbs because its "an upgrade" then we should do this across the board in the future.

Still no information regarding the circumstances for the murdered Sailors.

Its been seven days since news first broke of the missing and since murdered Sailors in Afghanistan.

What's puzzling is that no further information has been released regarding the circumstances that led to them taking the wrong turn into Taliban controlled territory.

In every previous instance of a missing US serviceman being captured or missing, the circumstances have come out rather quickly.  This time its different.

The only hint that we have is the rather cryptic statement from Admiral Mullen...

"from what I know right now, this is an unusual circumstance."

What does that mean?

What do they know that they're not telling us?

The Wikileak scandal is eye opening in one regard.  The US government/military has classified information that is widely available.

These Sailors were not in a Special Ops Unit.  They weren't in a Combat Outfit.  They were admin...So the question remains....What were they doing out there???

NAVAIR's Helo Neck Down is a success.

NAVAIR's neck down campaign for its helicopters is a success.  Not only have they been able to streamline maintenance, pilot training etc...but they've enhanced capability across the board.  As a bonus, I got a little clarity on the EFSS on the MH-60.

Its just one of several systems that have migrated from the Army's Blackhawk over to the SeaHawk fleet.

Interesting.
MH-60RS-PAS09

G3 Magazine.

I was reading the latest from ThinkDefence and he mentioned a magazine that is definitely worth your attention.

Its called G3, the subscription is free and if you want a British perspective on UK, European and US defense policy and a view of different tech, then this is mag for you.  I'm still reading it but it appears to be a winner.

Information request on Juniper Stallion 2010.

War News Updates ran a story concerning the crash of the CH-53 in Romania.  You can read it here.  But a little light digging led me to "Juniper Stallion 2010".

I can find nothing on it.

A Google News Search gave me seven...that's right 7 hits.  No photos.  No Navy press releases.  Nothing.

If you can provide a heads up on the units/ships involved and the type of training that took place, I'd certainly appreciate it.  And since this is a named exercise and is the public arena, I assume that its not classified.

A different take on the LCS..

Daniel Goure, PHD of the Lexington Institute is becoming one of my favorite defense thinkers.  Not only is his thinking truly out of the box (and in opposition to conventional thinking found on the East and West Coast) but its reasonable, thoughtful and extremely practical.

He also has the gift of not reverting to defense/business/academic speak which I find annoying.  In addition to all of the above, he gets the internet...make your point because your readers have lives!

No 18000 word, rambling piles of mush from this guy...THANK GOD!  This is a slice of his latest...

Both LCS 1 and LCS 2, the USS Independence, will open up new opportunities for naval collaboration between the U.S. and its allies, particularly in the Pacific region. Its modular design will allow the LCS to rapidly switch between the currently planned set of surface warfare, ASW and mine countermeasure missions. Clearly, the inherent flexibility of the LCS design will allow for other combinations of capabilities to be deployed, such as air and missile defense, shore bombardment, humanitarian assistance and air and sea surveillance.
Equally important, both LCS variants offer the potential to equip foreign navies. In the past, U.S. Navy ships have been too expensive and even too capable for all but the richest and most sophisticated foreign navies to procure. LCS will be relatively less expensive and possesses the virtue of an open architecture that will enable foreign navies to customize the ship to meet their needs. There is a tremendous value also to foreign navies operating the same platforms and weapons systems as the U.S. Navy.

I never considered those points.  Maybe the Surface Navy knows what its doing after all?  Read it all here.

Gibbs High Speed Amphibians.

Do you remember the buzz when Gibbs first unveiled their line of military amphibious vehicles?  Excitement was in the air and many predicted that these vehicles would be in the hands of Special Operations Command.

That hasn't happened...and for the life of me I can't figure out why.

A160T crashes in Mojave.

via Alert5 and Mercury News.

"The A160T Hummingbird reconnaissance helicopter crashed Wednesday afternoon two miles from a runway at Southern California Logistics Airport, the old George Air Force Base near Victorville where Boeing Advanced Systems has a test facility.
The helicopter, which is 35 feet long and has a 36-foot rotor diameter, was approaching Runway 17 when it crashed. The cause of the crash hasn't been disclosed."

Sweetman has been complaining about bandwidth issues with UAVs and now, in addition to the crashes in the war zones and the revelations in the WikiLeaks saga, we have this.

The question remains.

Who has been pushing UAVs?  The services in order to fully fund a revolutionary vehicle or the makers of these vehicles in order to keep the gravy train going?

Either way, we've been deceived when it comes to an actual discussion of their utility and their survivability in modern warfare.  We're not their yet...not even close.

Video of the Naval Flotilla Operating off the Coast of Korea.

Is the USAF flying Combat Air Patrols against the Iranians?

I found this photo on the Air Force website.  At first glance, nothing to it.  An Airman is assisting in a pre-flight inspection of a F-16.

The problem comes with the weapons layout.  Sidewinders and AMRAAMs for air support missions?  Not bloody likely.  Is this an indication that the USAF is flying Combat Air Patrols along the border with Iran?  I think it does.  And before I get the "that's old news" line, please direct me to the story!

U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Nick Forester performs preflight checks on an F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft preparing to launch for a mission from Joint Base Balad, Iraq, July 24, 2010. Forester is a crew chief with the 169th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron out of McEntire Joint National Guard Base, S.C. (DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Caycee Cook, U.S. Air Force/Released)