F-35B formation flight...

Lt. Col. Fred Schenk is at the controls of F-35B BF-1  and Lt. Col. Matt Taylor of BF-3 for the first formation flight of two F-35Bs. The formation was flown on the seventy-seventh flight of BF-1 and the sixty-fourth flight of BF-3 on 10 November 2010 from NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.

Thompson scores another touchdown.

I admit the Lexington Institute is aligned more closely with my political views than other "think tanks" that I can name but Thompson cuts through the BS found in most of the talking head pieces and gets to the truth of the matter...his article in its entirety follows...

Deficit Proposals Are Right About Need For Defense Cuts, But Full Of Errors On Weapons

Author:

Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D.

Date:

Friday, November 12, 2010

 

The chairmen of the bipartisan deficit-reduction commission have done the political system a big favor by illustrating the kinds of budget cuts that will be needed to bring federal expenses into closer alignment with fiscal resources. They have also removed any illusions that defense spending will be "off the table" when the new Congress turns to dealing with the deficit next year. With roughly 40 percent of federal spending currently being borrowed, items like Medicare and Medicaid would have to be cut in half to balance the budget if defense were left out of the equation. As I said in a Bloomberg Business News story yesterday, that is arithmetically and politically untenable.

The $100 billion in illustrative defense cuts the chairmen propose for fiscal 2015 all make sense, although it will be much easier to implement cuts in procurement than adjustments to military healthcare. Thus, the pattern seen in past defense downturns of weapons programs being cut first and cut furthest is likely to repeat itself again in the years ahead. (Secretary Gates already cut $330 billion in planned weapons spending last year, killing the Air Force's F-22 fighter, the Navy's next-generation destroyer, and the Army's proposed family of networked combat vehicles.)
Where the deficit commission chairmen went wrong on defense, though, was in trying to identify specific weapons programs that are suitable candidates for termination. Their lack of expertise on that subject is readily apparent in the proposals they make. They incorrectly state the number of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters that the Air Force is buying. They understate the cost of alternatives. They mis-identify the under secretary of the Navy and the name of the department's future radio system. They contradict themselves, saying in one paragraph that production of the V-22 rotorcraft should be ended early and then in the very next paragraph that an amphibious vehicle is less important to future warfighting than the capabilities provided by the V-22.
Little mistakes like these bespeak a broader ignorance of military plans and technology that leads the chairmen to exaggerate the savings their proposals would generate. For example, if the Joint Tactical Radio System were terminated as they propose, over dozen different legacy radios -- some of which cannot communicate with each other -- would need to be maintained indefinitely in the joint force. The cost of sustaining these aged devices and working around their numerous inadequacies would eventually come to match if not surpass the cost of fielding the new joint radio. The situation is similar with regard to their proposal for buying fewer F-35s and using more existing planes in the mix. Not only do those existing planes cost more than the commission seems to realize, but all sorts of additional outlays would be required to make them survivable in the environment for which the stealthy F-35 was conceived.
No one should be surprised to see the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle or the Army's Joint Light Tactical Vehicle on the chairmen's hit list. The projected unit costs of those systems have made them easy targets for budgeteers. But what the chairmen of the deficit commission don't seem to fully grasp is that when a program meeting a validated warfighting requirement is eliminated, something else has to take its place. In the case of the Marine Corps, there basically isn't any alternative to the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle -- the slow-moving legacy amphibs are deathtraps. In the case of the Army's proposed light tactical vehicle, the alternative is to keep Cold War humvees in service, even though they too have turned out to be deathtraps since insurgents in Iraq discovered improvised explosive devices.
Bottom line: yes, weapons purchases will have to be cut. But the commission should set broad targets and leave the specifics to Pentagon policymakers. Otherwise, it will say foolish things that undercut the credibility of its broader recommendations.

P-38 advertisement...

Colorful Harrier.

Another great shot from Joe Stremph.  How does he get these shots????

Latest F-35 pic...

Enjoy these pics of the Ark Royal...they will soon be historic.

Via Brian Aitkenhead at Warships...

Seems as if Turkey didn't get the message on European arms cuts...

Via AviationNews.EU

AgustaWestland  that it has been awarded a contract for nine T129 combat helicopters. The contract is valued at €150 million also including a spare parts package. The nine T129 helicopters will be assembled by Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TAI) and delivered by mid 2012 in a basic configuration, one year earlier of the 51 T129s already on order. This contract increases the total ordered by the Turkish Land Forces Command to 60. TAI is the Prime Contractor for the overall ATAK Programme, with ASELSAN as the supplier of avionics and mission equipments while AgustaWestland is acting as subcontractor to TAI. As the Prime Contractor of the ATAK Program, TAI is responsible for ensuring the T129 ATAK helicopter meets all the operational requirements of the Turkish Land Forces Command.

Ironic that while the rest of Europe disarms, Turkey is going full speed ahead.  They have an original order for 100 F-35's and increased it by another 20.  They have a huge ship building program going on (definitely under the radar but real) and the armed forces in general are sharpening their teeth on insurgents in Northern Iraq.

Turkey might be the real future military power on the European continent...not the traditional powers. 

Between Turkey's rise, former Soviet Block Countries like Romania innovating to get better....what is the UK's answer to the challenge????

Cut its Army....Trim its Navy....and depend on a 4th Generation F-15 sized fighter with no performance benefits that the latest model (F-15SG) bring to the table.

We do live in interesting times.

F-35 to PaxRiver vid.

Japan inches toward the F-35! Good News!

From the Japan Times.

The Defense Ministry is setting its sights on making the F-35 joint strike fighter the Air Self-Defense Force's next mainstay combat jet after giving up a plan to buy more F-2s, sources said Sunday.The ministry plans to list the procurement costs for the next-generation jet in its budget request for fiscal 2012.The ministry, which is trying to update its fighter jet fleet, was planning to retool its F-15 Eagles and buy more F-2s as a stopgap measure, given the delay in the development of the F-35, a fifth-generation stealth jet capable of flying at supersonic speeds, and its climbing price tag.But the ministry has determined that procuring the less-functional F-2 would be unwise in terms of deterrent capability and cost.Since China has been mass-producing its own fighter planes, which are comparable to the F-15, and is also seeking to develop a next-generation aircraft of its own, the ministry is looking to purchase about 40 F-35s or other fifth-generation fighters, they said.

Terminal Lance...

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