LCpl Schmuckatelli---Friday Humor and Terminal Lance.

I absolutely luv Terminal Lance...go to his site to read the story...its worth the time!

What was the movie???

090816-N-4205W-017 JOHN C. STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. (Aug. 16, 2009) Special warfare combatant-craft crewmen (SWCC) from Special Boat Team (SBT) 22 operate a special operations craft-riverine during the filming of a scene in a upcoming major motion picture. The movie is due in theaters in 2010. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Kathryn Whittenberger/Released)

090816-N-4205W-033 JOHN C. STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. (Aug. 16, 2009) Special warfare combatant-craft crewmen (SWCC) from Special Boat Team 22 operate a special operations craft-riverine (SOC-R) during the filming of a scene in an upcoming major motion picture. The movie is due in theaters in 2010. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Kathryn Whittenberger/Released)

If you read the captions on the above photos they talk about the Riverine's performing for a movie that supposedly came out in 2010...what was the movie???

Why the F-35 scares...

I've pondered long and hard about one thing.

Why does the F-35 scare its critics so much?

I can come up with only one answer.


It will drive fighter production and innovation for the foreseeable future.

Consider this.

With just the Navy/Marine Corps buy of this airplane, it will out number the total production of Eurofighters in service or planned.

With the combined Air Force/Navy/Marine Corps buy, it will out strip the purchase of the Eurofighter, Rafale and Gripen.

It will be---with just US purchases of this airplane...the dominant fighter on the planet.

Add in the allies and you have total dominance in the fighter market.

And thats the real fear.  Another market that the US will dominate...and for some that must not be allowed...even if their industry has a stake in the production.

Defense Talk's Concept Russian LCS Ships.

Its only a matter of time.  While these are concepts that some kid or even a professional artist came up with showing his vision of the future, you can bet that either the Russians or the Chinese are actually taking steps to duplicate and then perfect our designs.

Awesome stuff from my boys at Defense Talk.

MV-22 surpasses 100,000 flight hours during combat mission.

F-35 Flight Test Highlights.

The Mainstream Media Gets It! Build More AMPHIBS!

 

I got this from NRAINSTRUCTOR (thanks buddy!  welcome aboard!)

via The Atlantic...(follow the link and read the whole thing)

Of the 11 commissioned U.S. warships ships en route to Japan, almost half are big Cold War-era amphibious assault vessels purpose-built to land Marines on hostile shores. But while these unglamorous transport ships dispatch helicopters and critical aid to a grateful ally, they're being marginalized by a Navy that tends to fixate on the capabilities to wage a high-tech, blue-water war, while underestimating the importance of mundane disaster-response work in maintaining our global power and influence.

The Navy's amphibious forces have carried out the lion's share of America's disaster-response work, responding to 114 crises and contingencies over the past 20 years. Yet this enviable record means little inside the beltway. With the recent cancellation of the pricey $25-million dollar Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, a specialized floating tank meant to speed Marines from sea to shore, defense leaders are signaling that troop transporters, helicopter carriers, and other old-school "charge the beach" tools of amphibious warfare are obsolete and not worth full funding. The EFV deserved cancellation for a number of reasons, not the least of which was its price tag, but skeptics of amphibious warfare are using the EFV's demise to claim that the amphibious fleet as a whole has lost its reason for being and should be cut.

But even as Washington cuts, more countries are investing in amphibious warfare platforms than ever before.

Not the story big Navy wants out.

Not a story about the glorious aircraft carriers.

Not a story about the exotic and powerful destroyers.

Not a story about a "Global Force for Good".

A story about the busiest ships in the fleet. 

ABOUT DAMN TIME!