E-2D --- Defense begins with Detection!

What if....

The USMC is rock solid behind the F-35B...even more now that we have an aviation Commandant.  The US Navy is luke warm to the F-35C.  What will the UK do if the US Navy drops the F-35C, the USMC continues with the F-35B and other allies suspected of going with the F-35B continue.

The way I see it, thats a valid option...so what will the UK's options then be???
1.  Become the only buyer of the F-35C...
2.  Revamp the Typhoon into a carrier model...
3.  Buy Rafales...(in light of their recent decisions this is the more probable outcome)....
4.  Buy Gripens....

Interesting.  Think Defence and SNAFU! are working on a collaboration.  Keep an eye on his blog for news on the latest from across the Atlantic.

When are we going to be finished with Haiti???

I mean no disrespect, but when are we going to be finished with this modern day meals on ships program?  Say this out loud and see if it makes sense...

The US Navy is sending the USS Iwo Jima to Haiti in preparation for a Hurricane.

Wasn't US military involvement in that island nation suppose to be over with back in March?  If this is the new face of US military power then we need to get a drastic nip and tuck.  But notice something even more insidious.  NGO's are becoming an integral part of ships company now.  This is the ships roster...

A crew of 1,600 military and civilian medical, engineering, aviation, logistical and other support personnel are embarked aboard Iwo Jima, including U.S. Navy engineers, a contingent of 500 Marines with logistical-support expertise, volunteers from the U.S. Public Health Service and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as medical, dental and engineering professionals from Europe, North America and South America.

Read about it here....

Europe's Carrier Force is Kaput!

The Telegraph reports...

As President Nicolas Sarkozy prepares to use a historic London summit to announce the use of RAF jets off the Charles de Gaulle, his naval chiefs have told him she is no longer seaworthy.

"She's meant to be heading to Afghanistan to support the war there but is instead in home port with a faulty propulsion system," said a French Navy source. 

I wonder if they still think a mutual defense treaty (the UK) with France is still a great idea.  I continue to be perplexed by our friends across the Atlantic.

How silly can you be????

This story from DefenseNews has my blood boiling!

If you want interoperability with a host of allies then you need the F-35B!  His Harriers were operating off US Navy LHDs not US Navy carriers!  But this is the passage that has me steamed....

What's more, the U.K. vice defense chief told reporters in Washington before a speech that officials also determined the nation would need the greater "range and payload" planned for the carrier variant.
He also said U.K. defense officials also decided that since key allies like France were slated to buy the carrier variant, following suit would make sense to foster interoperability. To this end, the nation's recently completed strategic defense review states the British military will carry out most future missions and tasks "with alliances and coalitions," Houghton said during his speech.

What a piker!

But we really have to ask ourselves one question.  How serious were the British from the start when it comes to buying the F-35B?  They were after a lost capability...the full deck carrier!  Once that was guaranteed were they really interested in the B model at all?  It would be akin to having B models operating off Nimitz class carriers...doable but not particularly effective.  Then you add in the rolling landing nonsense and I wonder if we should have seen this one coming.

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice?????  You won't again UK.

Don't Hate...Appreciate!

CH-53D's in Afghanistan...

Saw this on Military Photos...posted by a member called Danskeren...