Textron's Tactical Armored Patrol Vehicle (TAPV)

photo via the Ottawa Business Journal

The Textron Tactical Armored Patrol Vehicle.

Textron, like the other entrants into this Canadian program, is holding its cards close its vest.  If anyone has any good info then hit me up.

UPDATE:

Rheinmetall Canada and Textron Systems Canada will offer a 4x4 wheeled armoured vehicle specifically engineered to meet the Canadian Forces’ requirements for survivability, mobility, and lethality across a broad spectrum of operations in the toughest terrain. The modern design includes a new protection package designed to shield troops from roadside bombs.
Rheinmetall Canada will perform multiple integration functions, including integration of remote weapon stations and government-furnished equipment. The company will also play a large role in the integrated logistics and in-service support for the vehicle.

Ok, a little Google-foo revealed the above blurb on the Rheinmetall website.  Interesting.  I really was expecting Rheinmetall to submit the Boxer, or the Puma.  This competition just became about the most interesting armored contest in the West.

Foreign Aid will be a hot button topic...even aid delivered by the military.

via Fox News.

The United States is providing hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign aid to countries that it borrows billions from, according to a report by Congress's research arm.

The Congressional Research Services released a report last month, a copy of which Fox News exclusively obtained, showing that in fiscal year 2010, the latest year that data was available, the U.S. handed out a total of $1.4 billion to 16 foreign countries that held at least $10 billion in Treasury securities, including China ($27.2 million), Brazil ($25 million), Russia ($71.5 million), India ($126.6 million), Mexico ($316.7 million) and Egypt ($255.7 million).

I'm cynical.  I think that this is a story designed to protect all foreign aid by attempting to highlight the aid that we're giving to countries that don't need it.

This will be a hot button subject for this political season.  Cuts are coming...to defense, entitlements etc...but foreign aid has to be part of that mix too.

And in my mind that includes the aid given to nations through the dubious Partnership Exercises.

UPDATE:

Wow.  I took down this post initially because I knew that the liberal readers of my blog just wouldn't be able to take it.  Having read this story from DefenseNews, I can see that I was spot on.

Here's a tidbit...

In the final continuing resolution for 2011, the department's Economic Support Fund (ESF) lost close to $2 billion from its budget request. The fund provides money to countries around the world to help them overcome short- and long-term political, economic and security problems.
"That is a huge cut when you're talking about the relatively small ESF account, and it has impacts on countries around the world and it's forcing us to make very hard choices about where to invest our dollars and where to cut," Sullivan said.
The cuts also come as the State Department is trying to increase its operational capability so that it can better partner with the military services in the field, he said.
To stave off further reductions, the State Department is making its case to Congress that it needs every possible dollar requested.
"We have to show them that we are finding ways to increase efficiency and deliver more effectively," Sullivan said.
But the case needs to be made beyond Capitol Hill, he said. Recent polls show that Americans support cuts to foreign aid, but they also dramatically overestimate its portion of the federal budget.

Riverine Forces finally wakes up.

Seems like the powers that be have finally woken up to the fact that we have Riverine Forces that aren't in the fight.  Read the story here.

Tuesday, the Navy tested the ability to dock and secure the RCB and the smaller riverine patrol boat in the well deck of the anchored dock landing ship Oak Hill during a proof-of-concept test held at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
Riverine force leaders gave the demonstration a thumbs-up. If senior Navy leaders agree, the riverine force could find itself with a new post-Iraq war mission set outside the green-water arena for which it is designed, and the Navy with yet another capability for the flexible and heavily deployed amphibious force.

My guess.

Riverine looked around, put its finger up in the breeze and didn't like the direction that the wind was blowing.

Remember my posts here?  Well even though this is a positive development, it doesn't go far enough.  If Riverine's are going to continue then they need to become attached to the MEU.  JHSV's as some are talking about won't be operating in as independent a fashion as some imagine.

They are ship to shore connectors.  They aren't combat boats.  And unless the Riverine's attach themselves to either Amphibs or LCS then they're done once the budget cutters come. 

The facts are simple and stark.

We have a war fighting capability that can't get to the scene of conflicts and worse aren't visible to the Combatant Commanders (or worse still, the Commanders see no use for them).

Ballsy Landing...

Nice Animation.

CV90

"Gun Bunnies" ---correction...The King of Battle gettin' some...

I got wore out just watching this....

Pacific Partnership Missions. Missed opportunities on the homefront.

The US Navy just released an article touting its Pacific Partnership Missions.  Read the whole thing but here's a blurb...

After 13 days of working with local medical, dental and engineering professionals in Papua New Guinea, serving close to 11,000 people, Pacific Partnership 2011 concluded its mission May 31 and got underway aboard amphibious transport dock ship USS Cleveland (LPD 7).

and this...

Since the first mission in 2006, Pacific Partnership has visited 15 countries, treated more than 230,000 patients and built over 150 engineering projects in 15 countries. During this year's mission, the Pacific Partnership team has treated more than 21,000 patients, participated in thousands of contact hours of formal SMEEs, and built classrooms and water catchment systems in all three of its mission ports.

I have no problem in helping others...but if the Chief of Naval Operations wants to 'get the Navy story out' then perhaps he should start at home.

Imagine if this same effort...the medical and engineering assistance was turned toward our own crumbling schools and poor.  Imagine how the citizens of this country would look at its Navy!

Quite simply.  The US Military should not be globe trotting providing medical services overseas and doing building projects when we have severe needs here at home.

UPDATE:
Check out this press release.  Seems like Missouri Disaster Medical Assistance Team is having to call in a civilian company to provide services that the US Navy is doing for free in other countries.  If you disagree fine.  But this is shameful.  How this can go unnoticed at the highest levels of our military...talking to you Admiral---or have you already packed up for the Vice Chair position?--is beyond me.