Amphibs again prove their worth.

Defense Tech is reporting this...

Here’s a quick rundown of the tech the U.S. military is sending to help in the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami that just hit Japan. From a Pentagon news release:

• The USS Tortuga, in Sasebo, Japan, is preparing to load landing craft and to leave for the disaster areas as early as this evening.
• The USS Essex, with the embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, arrived in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, this morning. The ship is preparing to depart as early as this evening.
• The USS Blue Ridge, in Singapore, is taking on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief supplies and preparing to depart tomorrow morning.
• The USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group, at sea in the western Pacific on its way to Korea, can respond if directed.

So far, there are no reports of U.S. military casualties or major damage to American military equipment in Japan.

4 ships on call...2 are amphibs...1 is a carrier and 1 is a command ship.

Why this mix?

Quite simply...Manpower and equipment.

Disasters require personnel to physically search for and treat survivors...operate heavy equipment for clean up...fly helicopters to aid in casualty evacuation....man amphibious assault vehicle to travel flooded areas to reach stranded persons..etc...

A unique capability found on amphibious ships.  A capability not found on Destroyers...Subs...Frigates or Patrol Ships.

It does little good for a ship to arrive in 2 hours if it can't provide meaningful assistance.

A carrier---as effective a ship of war as it is---doesn't have the resources to provide the kind of assistance that is needed.


It can show the flag but it can't do the work.

Amphibs again prove their worth.

Force Protection Ocelot. Let's get real about its size.

Time to get real about the Force Protection Ocelot.  Its not a small vehicle.  Its almost 18 feet long.  Its almost 8 feet tall.  Its narrower than a HUMVEE but only by a few inches....and once the HUMVEEs are RESET and Upgraded they will only gain a capsule and suspension improvements.  Meaning that they will be no wider and will probably only match the Ocelot in height.  Much as my buddy Think Defence loves the Ocelot, its not the world beater that our friends across the pond might want us to believe.

via Wikipedia...Production history
Designer	Ricardo Plc / Force Protection Europe
Designed	2009–2010
Manufacturer	Force Protection Europe
Produced	2011– (projected)
Variants	Prototype
Specifications
Weight	7,500 kg (7.4 long tons)
Length	5.32 m (17 ft 5 in)
Width	2.1 m (6 ft 11 in)
Height	2.35 m (7 ft 9 in)
Speed	110 km/h (68 mph)

Price of the 2nd Dutch F-35 known!

GvG sent me this link and information from the Dutch Ministry of Defense regarding the quoted price of the F-35 test airplane (absolutely awesome GvG...thanks).

By letter dated February 29, 2008 Parliament received confidential information on the estimates of the price of the second F-35 test plane including engine, which was € 91.7 million (2007 prices).

The now agreed target price of the unit including the engine is € 91.2 million (2007 prices,  plan-dollar $ 1.00 = € 0.83). In 2010 price level this amount is equivalent to € 99.2 million.

The ceiling price of the unit without motor is 6 percent above the target price, but the ceiling price of the engine is not yet known..Translated by GvG.

Read the whole thing here..its in pdf form...but despite what you hear from the critics and naysayers...this program is not only on track but meeting cost expectations.

Button and Curtiss Support Operations During Exercise Pacific Horizon 2011

Maritime Prepositioning ship USNS Sgt. William R. Button floats three miles off the coast off Camp Pendleton's Red Beach during Pacific Horizon 2011. Button and the Maritime Prepositioning ship SS Curtiss are supporting the 14 day exercise which provides the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and the Navy's Expeditionary Strike Group-3 the opportunity to exercise essential core competencies at the brigade level to rapidly respond to an emerging crisis with a flexible, full spectrum capability. (Photo by Sgt. Jason Fudge)

A crane offloads a beach landing module from Maritime Prepositioning ship USNS Sgt. William Button anchored three miles off Camp Pendleton's Red Beach, during exercise Pacific Horizon 2011. Button and the Maritime Prepositioning ship SS Curtiss are supporting the 14 day exercise which provides the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and the Navy's Expeditionary Strike Group-3 the opportunity to exercise essential core competencies at the brigade level to rapidly respond to an emerging crisis with a flexible, full spectrum capability. (Photo by Sgt. Jason Fudge)

An amphibious assault vehicle with 3rd Amphibious Assault Battalion drives onto a roll on/roll off discharge facility attached to USNS Sgt. William Button near Camp Pendleton, Calif., during Pacific Horizon 2011. Button and the Maritime Prepositioning ship SS Curtiss are supporting the 14 day exercise which provides the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and the Navy's Expeditionary Strike Group-3 the opportunity to exercise essential core competencies at the brigade level to rapidly respond to an emerging crisis with a flexible, full spectrum capability. (Photo by Sgt. Jason Fudge)

Lee sent me the link to this story on the Military Sealifts Command participation in Exercise Pacific Horizon 2011...thanks guy!!

But the thing thats hitting me  more than almost anything else..especially with this re-emphasis on amphibious operations is the role that the Follow-on echelon and the ships in the MPF play in sustaining combat power ashore after the initial assault.

MEU's and the larger MEB-MEF are able to sustain themselves for at least 30 days ... but high intensity combat will chew up men, vehicles and supplies at a much higher rate so the importance of these ships increases with the level of resistance...in short...I've been concentrating on the sharp end of the stick but the shaft is just as important....

Eurofighter...Worse than we thought???

My buddy Bjørnar sent me an article on the Typhoon Eurofighter.....Read it all here but these are some highlights...

This shows the acquisition cost of the Eurofighter/Typhoon in an even worse light than it had previously appeared, when an RAF fleet of 160 had been expected. It is now acknowledged that the development and production cost to the UK of Eurofighter will be £23bn with planned upgrades.
This means that we UK taxpayers will have shelled out no less than £215m for each of our 107 jets – that's $350m at today's rates, rather more than the US taxpayers have been made to pay for each of their 185 Raptor superfighters², almost all of which will be used operationally. And the Raptor has third-generation Stealth: the Eurofighter has no stealth features at all. The Raptor has thrust vectoring for unbeatable manoeuvrability in a dogfight: the Eurofighter doesn't.

I don't quite know what to make of the article or the source.  I wish I had a better grasp of British Newspapers and how seriously to take them.  One thing is certain though....if even half the claims made are true then the UK's Ministry of Defense has some explaining to do!

Joint Strike Fighter make 100th flight...the official pics...

On March 7, 2011, the first F-35B Joint Strike
Fighter test aircraft (BF-1) completed its 100th flight with BAE test
pilot Peter Wilson at the controls. BF-1 flew in short take-off,
vertical landing (STOVL) mode to continue expansion of the STOVL flight
envelope to demonstrate design durability and in preparation for
shipboard testing scheduled for later this year. The F-35B is the first
JSF variant with two aircraft completing 100 flights and will be the
first stealth fighter for the U.S. Marine Corps and is undergoing test
and evaluation at NAS Patuxent River. Photo courtesy Lockheed Martin.

On March 7, 2011, the first F-35B Joint Strike
Fighter test aircraft (BF-1) completed its 100th flight with BAE test
pilot Peter Wilson at the controls. BF-1 flew in short take-off,
vertical landing (STOVL) mode to continue expansion of the STOVL flight
envelope to demonstrate design durability and in preparation for
shipboard testing scheduled for later this year. The F-35B is the first
JSF variant with two aircraft completing 100 flights and will be the
first stealth fighter for the U.S. Marine Corps and is undergoing test
and evaluation at NAS Patuxent River. Photo courtesy Lockheed Martin.

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