Blast from the past. Cruise missile carriers...

Surfing the net I ran across the Cruise Missile Carrier concept from the 70's based on wide body civil airliners.

While the option at the time was between using them or the B-2 in the nuclear deterrence role, the concept is valid in my opinion in the Air-Sea Battle of today.

G-2 mil stated on his blog the following...

B-747s can also dominate the world's oceans.  A squadron of 12 B-747s loaded with anti-ship cruise missiles can be vectored toward a enemy fleet by satellites or submarines, while E-3 Sentry AWACS provide escort with long-range radar.  The squadron can break into four flights and launch a total of 1064 cruise missiles at a naval fleet from four directions a thousand miles away.

While he goes on to make some statements that I disagree with his basic premise seems sound.  And valuable for a future war at sea.  Taking the nuclear mission out of the equation and you have massive firepower that will have to be protected but could saturate targets at sea and land with cruise missiles outside the range of threat weapon systems.

If we were to develop high speed cruise missiles like our potential enemies then we could in essence have a Chinese carrier killer all in one airplane.  Any idea of denying our forces entry into a particular region of the Pacific could be denied with a flight of F-22's with tankers escorting a couple of B-747 cruise missile carriers.

The Air Force would never rethink its thinking on the concept but it is a fascinating blast from the past.

A-4's in the attack...

Neptunus Lex ran an article which details low level flight.

The link he provides is beyond awesome....and the photo you see above is from that link.  An Argentinian A-4 attacking British shipping.

Now take another look.

Did you only see the A-4 in the center of the photo?

Or did you notice his wingman to our visual right?

Low level attack in a small airplane.  I can't even begin to imagine how small the target must be with a high speed anti-ship cruise missile.

Blast from the past. Para-Marines.

Lets see...we have MARSOC being formed which traces its roots back to the Marine Raider Concept of WW2 so what's missing?

Or perhaps who else should they trace their lineage to?

I contend it would be the Para-Marines.

Although they never performed an Airborne operation in concert with an Amphibious Landing the concept still intrigues.  In some ways heliborne ops have negated the need for airborne ops in this regard, but I still wonder if one battalion of Marine Airborne Infantry could be of use in this day and age.  I can easily see this battalion that I propose being stationed in Australia and being deployed by Air Force C-17 in ultra rapid deployment situations.  Maybe Guam would be a better location?  Anyway, read the document below. 

Silk Chutes and Hard Fighting US Marine Corps Parachute Units in WWII

Pic of the day...

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Sean Marlow, a survival, evasion, resistance and escape (SERE) specialist, performs a free-fall parachute jump from a UH-1N Iroquois helicopter above Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., Dec. 5, 2011. Both static line and free-fall training courses are mandatory to become a SERE specialist. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Taylor Curry)

Program Office and Lockheed make nice.

Still a fan of the F-35 but my antenna is up for spin and manipulation.


I guess the program office and LM are making nice.  Why do I say that?  Pics released and a vid from NAVAIR that you see above.

I guess the good Admiral is trying to be friendly after telegraphing the report that came out.

CF-2 Flight 41

U.S. Marine Corp Maj. C.R. Clift flies F-35C test aircraft CF-2 for its 41st flight. (Lockheed Martin photo by Michael D. Jackson)

U.S. Marine Corp Maj. C.R. Clift flies F-35C test aircraft CF-2 for its 41st flight. (Lockheed Martin photo by Michael D. Jackson)

U.S. Marine Corp Maj. C.R. Clift flies F-35C test aircraft CF-2 for its 41st flight. (Lockheed Martin photo by Michael D. Jackson)

BF-5

U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Fred Schenk flies F-35B test aircraft BF-5 in short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) mode during the aircraft’s 24th flight. (Lockheed Martin photo by Michael D. Jackson)

F-35B test aircraft BF-5 flies in STOVL mode for the first time on Dec. 5, 2011, on its 21st flight. (Lockheed Martin photo by Andy Wolfe)

AAV forever????

via DefenseMediaNetwork.  Check out the entire article but this stood out and punched me in the eye.

ACV program plans seem to be coalescing around an approach outlined, “As approved at the ACV Material Development Decision (MDD), the ACV program has been approved to enter a combined Material Solution Analysis/Technology Development Phase. An In Process Review will be held after the Analysis of Alternatives (AoA), at which time the material solution will be set and the subsequent Milestones will be established. For this RFI, the government is looking for industry input into an incremental acquisition program to deliver a series of incremental capability upgrades in order to inform ongoing affordability analyses. This could be achieved either through delivery of a baseline new vehicle with subsequent planned upgrades, or a set of planned upgrades to the legacy vehicle. The overall intent is to minimize the per vehicle cost of each of the increments without stretching the program over more than three increments, and preferably only two.”

Wow.

I don't know where I'm at with this type of thinking.  "A set of planned upgrades to the legacy vehicle"...WTF!

HQMC initially stated that they would be upgrading the AAV while developing and getting into service the ACV.

Now we might be left with the laughable position of the AAV getting renamed and rewrapped again.  Aviation----you're killing the ground side-----but if that is the game plan then it does make the Marines EXTREMELY frugal again.

Color me confused.