More African Lion 12

An assault amphibious vehicle moves across the beach in Morocco carrying Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and members of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces April 10, 2012, during Exercise African Lion 12. The training allowed the Marines to introduce the Moroccan troops to the unique capabilities of the AAV, which the Marines drove onto the beach that morning from the USS New York off the coast of Morocco. This exercise is the first event for the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March on a regularly scheduled deployment to serve as a theater reserve and crisis response force.  Photo by Staff Sgt. Robert Fisher

Marines and Sailors with Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, meet and take pictures with members of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces in an Assault Amphibious Vehicles on the shores of Morocco April 10, 2012, during exercise African Lion 12. The training allowed the Marines to introduce the Moroccan troops to the unique capabilities of the AAV, which the Marines drove onto the beach that morning from the USS New York off the coast of Morocco. This exercise is the first event for the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March on a regularly scheduled deployment to serve as a theater reserve and crisis response force.  Photo by Staff Sgt. Robert Fisher

Marines with Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct bi-lateral training with Royal Moroccan Armed Forces during exercise African Lion 12 on the shores of Morocco April 10, 2012. The training allowed the Marines to introduce the Moroccan troops to the unique capabilities of the assault amphibious vehicle that the Marines drove to the beach that morning from the USS New York off the coast of Morocco. This exercise is the first event for the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March on a regularly scheduled deployment to serve as a theater reserve and crisis response force.  Photo by Cpl. Michael Petersheim

Members of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces unload after riding in an assault amphibious vehicle April 10, 2012, with Marines from Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit during the bi-lateral training exercise called African Lion 12. The training allowed the Marines to introduce the Moroccan troops to the unique capabilities of the assault amphibious vehicle that the Marines drove to the beach that morning from the USS New York off the coast of Morocco. This exercise is the first event for the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March on a regularly scheduled deployment to serve as a theater reserve and crisis response force.  Photo by Cpl. Michael Petersheim

What he's really thinking...

Capt. Robert May, commanding officer of Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, speaks with a member of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces on the shores of Morocco during Exercise African Lion 12, April 10, 2012. The training allowed the Marines to introduce the Moroccan troops to the unique capabilities of the AAV, which the Marines drove onto the beach that morning from the USS New York off the coast of Morocco. This exercise is the first event for the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March on a regularly scheduled deployment to serve as a theater reserve and crisis response force.  Photo by Staff Sgt. Robert Fisher

The caption indicates a normal conversation.

The look on the Marines face tells a different story.

What he's really thinking is...

Ok. The LCS is jacked up. What now?

We've been talking about alternatives to the LCS but that misses the real issue.

We're stuck with them so what now?

CDR Salamander has an excellent article on where the LCS is now...read it at his spot but check out this part.

OK - so we will have purchased ~43% of a run of ship without one ... a single one ... FMC mission module in place. If the mission modules shift to the right, as they will probably do, then will we have over half before we even know we can get any fight out of them?

Read the entire article but his leads to the point I'm trying to make.

We will have ships that will sport one 57mm cannon, two 30mm cannons, close in defense cannons and maybe a stinger crew that can pop out on deck to help with the air defense missions if it gets really wild and hairy. In essence we get a powerful Offshore Patrol Vessel or a very weak Corvette.

So I ask again, how do we make these ships useful RIGHT NOW instead of 5 years from now?

The answer is to load them with habitable container modules (you're welcome Think Defence), assign them to SOCOM in each operational area (probably no more than a total of 8 ships...I hope) and we get them into the fight now.

Additionally they could participate in Southern, African and Asian partnership missions with the same habitable container modules but with a different cast of characters...Riverines, US Army Light Infantry, Marines when they're not on float or otherwise assigned, USAF Security Teams and heck even US Coast Guardsmen in the drug interdiction role.

The habitable container module is ready now.  We can do this, all it takes is a little will.   Read about the above module over at SeaBox.


Instant mothership/special operations base/enhanced drug interdiction ship TODAY!  Oh and SOCOM can go on and put the tired USS Ponce to rest.

Sounds like a winning idea to me.

Pic of the day. F-35 in Royal Navy markings!

via Savetheroyalnavy.org by Al Clark @ janetairlines

Rough Seas.

HMS Daring in some rough water.


The Royal Navy is definitely working this ship hard.  


I like it.

Bell Helicopter's 525 Relentless.

Hmmm.

Don't know how I missed this but so did a lot of the aviation big boy news media.

A 16 seat super medium helicopter?  Its obviously designed to battle Sikorsky's S-92 and whatever EADS and Westland have on the market.  Its pretty but I wonder if its enough.  They are right in concentrating on the civilian market.  The Western militaries will be upgrading before they start buying new.  Read about the 525 Relentless here.

On a sidenote this helo reminds me of the 214ST.  I guess evolution is becoming the norm instead of revolution.

Interesting. A one man crime wave.