General's Club strikes at Navy lust for F/A-XX

via Flight Global.

Retired USMC Lt Gen Emerson Gardner, a former principal deputy director of the Pentagon's Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE), says that there are lots of reasons to be sceptical about the USN's ability to fund the F/A-XX.
"It's not going to happen," Gardner says. "There's not going to be any money there."
Gardner says that the USN will probably not have any money for the programme in the fiscal year 2014 budget. Nor is it likely that the USN will ever come up with the $20 billion to $30 billion in research and development dollars to fund an F/A-XX development programme.
Gardner estimates the total cost of a new F/A-XX programme to be more than $40 billion and yield a maximum of 150 aircraft. The unit cost, he estimates, could be as much as $125 million per jet.
The USN simply does not have the money to pay for F/A-XX. With the USN's ship-building budgets squeezed, Gardner says that naval aviation accounts will likely end up being raided to help pay for submarines and surface ships.
The only place the money can come from is from within the F-35 programme, Gardner says. "There is a community over there that says 'let's just skip the F-35C, let's just keep buying F/A-18s and we'll go and develop this other airplane,'" he says.
"That's very dangerous for the carrier because it makes the carrier irrelevant. They are not going to have first-day capability. I'm absolutely convinced that if you do not have stealth by the year 2022 to 2025 you will be irrelevant."
Lt Gen George Trautman, a former USMC deputy commandant for aviation, concurs.
"It sort of validates the naval aviators' overall lack of commitment to the F-35," he says. "It shows how much they're in bed with Boeing to include a whole host of retired navy aviators who work for Boeing. And it shows, frankly, their lack of commitment to unmanned systems."
Gardner concurs that the USN's relationship with Boeing is playing a role in the service's push towards a new tactical fighter programme.
"I think it's Boeing. There is a huge Boeing lobby in the navy," Gardner says. "That has a lot to do with it."

Trust me on this one gents.

The General's Club has made an estimation and decided that the "hand on the wheel that's driving the Marine Corps" needs to be fortified a bit.

Not one but two retired General's decided to make a statement on the Navy's F/A-XX project and the backing from that service on the F-35C.

You're starting to see the Club members speaking up on matters important to the Marine Corps...the first hint of this came with the Commandant's pronouncement to "stop embarassing the Corps" and now this.

I've stated before that Amos' time in the big chair will not be seen in the same light as General Gray's or Mundy's or Krulak's...this confirms it.

Sucking up to Congress Critters.

Congressional staffers from Capitol Hill tour the inside of an Amphibious Assault Vehicle during a demonstration of the Marine capabilities on Marine Day at Camp Barrett on April 27. More than 440 congressional staffers were bused and flown in on V-22 Ospreys for the event.

Rachael McLachlan, a congressional staffer, receives instructions from a weapons instructor on how to operate the .50 caliber machine gun during a demonstration of the Marine capabilities on Marine Day at Camp Barrett on April 27. The .50 caliber machinegun was one of four weapons that the staffers got to test fire.

Michael Weinstein, a congressional staffer, takes aim with the M 203 grenade launcher during a demonstration of the Marine capabilities on Marine Day at Camp Barrett on April 27.

Heroism vs. Politics.

"Suppose the Navy SEALs had been captured or killed...the down side would have been horrible for him (the President)"

I think that says it all.

Heroism vs. Politics.  Some of us know the difference. 

Perimeter security.

A paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, pulls security during a combined U.S. – Afghan clearing operation April 28, 2012, in Ghazni province, Afghanistan. He is set up in the ruins of an old kalat, or mud-wall building. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod

Russian Airborne Forces to be taught US tactics stateside.

You have got to be shitting me!  From Buisness Insider!

Russian paratroopers will meet up with American forces next month for an unprecedented military exercise in Colorado, according to RT News.
It's the first time Russian service members will be invited into the United States for a joint drill.
A Russian airborne task force will "exercise with U.S. special service weapons," an announcement by Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Aleksandr Kucherenko revealed.
The official purpose of the joint training is to practice airborne tactics and anti-terror operations, such as dropping into a hostile area and conducting a "terrorist camp raid."
"Soldiers of the two countries will hold a tactical airborne operation, including reconnaissance of an imaginary terrorists' camp and a raid," said Kucherenko.

If that isn't bad enough then check out this video.



We have US Marines assigned to the Black Sea Rotational Force teaching our allies, the Georgian military, how to repel an attack by these bastards and now we're gonna teach them our stuff?

Leadership failure.

But wait!  There's more!  While our State Dept and Pentagon drop trousers and grabs ankles this is what the Russians are doing...via Washington Times....

 Russia’s most senior military officer said Thursday that Moscow would preemptively strike and destroy U.S.-led NATO missile defense sites in Eastern Europe if talks with Washington about the system continue to stall.
“A decision to use destructive force preemptively will be taken if the situation worsens,” Russian Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov said at an international missile defense conference in Moscow attended by senior U.S. and NATO officials.
The threat comes as talks about the missile defense system, which the U.S. and its allies insist is aimed at Iranian missiles, appear to have stalled.
“We have not been able to find mutually-acceptable solutions at this point and the situation is practically at a dead end,” Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said.

They play hardball we acted like pussies.

AVX Aircraft Corp. concept is now patented.

via Shepard Media.

AVX Aircraft Company has announced that it has been granted its primary utility patent by the US Patent and Trade Office, covering all aspects of its unique technical functions and configuration, consisting of coaxial rotors and dual ducted fans, the relationship between the rotors and fans, which provide propulsion and directional control, as well as a number of internal controls and components. The company made the announcement 2 May, 2012.

The patent is an important milestone for the company and its technology, AVX Aircraft Company said. ‘Since the main rotors are needed only for lift, the aircraft is able to fly level, similar to a fixed-wing aircraft, resulting in less drag than conventional rotorcraft.  The rear fans act like propellers and provide 30%-50% greater speed than conventional rotorcraft, and also provide directional control which simplifies the function of the rotors.’

AVX believes its technology combines ‘proven technologies to achieve greater aerodynamic efficiency, speed, range, fuel efficiency, hover out of ground effect, ability to operate in hotter temperatures and at higher altitudes, and greater utility than conventional helicopters.  AVX Technology is scalable to any size helicopter and is applicable to commercial and military aircraft.’

Just a feeling but I would bet that this company is on someone's radar as a takeover target.

The concept is stunning.  AVX has the sole rights to it...One of the big boys in the aviation industry is about to claim it for itself.

Remember you heard it here first.

LCS 1 & 2 on exercise.

A couple of things...

I'm surprised at how much larger the LCS 2 appears in relation to the LCS 1.  That flight deck on the LCS 2 should come in handy.

I'm a little shocked at how old and tired these ships look.  Here's a close up of the LCS 2....

I wonder what they're going to look like after a deployment or two.

NOTE:
If this is the new Navy standard when it comes to ship appearance then we desperately need to establish motherships and keep these bad boys off shore.  Can you imagine pulling into hyper clean, hyper sparkling Singapore in a ship that looks like a garbage barge?  Embarrassing!

Big Army about to put a muzzle on SOCOM.

I've been a critic of SOCOM but this is not what I was looking for with changes to that organization.  The current Army Chief of Staff is about to make these units ineffective.  Check this out from Military.com.

U.S. military leaders are planning an Army where conventional units will be deployed in tandem with Special Forces, officials say.
Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, outlined the new military in an article published last week in Foreign Affairs. He suggested the military needs to build on the relationship between the conventional Army and Special Operations Forces developed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"The evolution of this partnership over the past decade has been extraordinary, and the ties can become even stronger as we continue to develop new operational concepts, enhance our training and invest in new capabilities," he wrote.
While the size of the Army is being cut, Special Forces are to grow from 32,000 to 35,000, The New York Times said.
The military's goal, as described by Odierno and other leaders, is an Army that can handle everything from working with local leaders to heavy combat in the same theater. That means rethinking conventional military training.
One plan is to assign units to a specific region of the world, allowing soldiers to be trained in local languages and customs.

This will render some SOCOM units totally ineffective.

US Army Special Forces won't be able to do their thing because you'll have an Army Infantry Brigade stomping around where they're treading lightly.

What I had in mind was a SOCOM that was more independent.  You can bet that this is a move to place SOCOM officers back under the thumbs of Conventional Force Officers.

Funny thing is that SOCOM has no one but themselves to blame.   Instead of seeking greater power, they should have been seeking greater autonomy.  Becoming Combatant Commanders or even being able to work around them (entering areas without first notifying them) put them on the Pentagon's radar and this is but the first example of the bureaucracy putting the lion back in the cage.

This sucks but they have no one to blame but themselves.

NOTE:
If I'm right in my thinking the next shoe to fall will be SOCOM growing less than planned across the board.