Recruiting Humvee.

Brits and the F-35. What the fuck guys?

I had to cool off on this one.

The Brits did as expected and switched back to the F-35B.

Honestly my first post on this subject said things like...They just need to drop out of the program...Why are we letting these people muck with the F-35 when they're buying so few of them...and lastly....What the fuck are they thinking, I've seen two year olds with more conviction when buying things.

But I'm left with this.


We're just two different countries.

With that in mind, may I make a suggestion?

Table this decision.  Don't reverse it, just table it.  Take a couple of years to decide exactly what you want to do.  Your spots will be taken up by Israel and you'll be dropped down to observer status in the program and we'll get on with it.  If you want back in awesome.  If you don't then that's fine too.

But the interservice battles.  The moves by the Royal Air Force to push this choice...The Royal Navy's obvious disgust by the choice is apparent.

Just let it go guys.

We'll talk to ya later.

Two more F-35's to Eglin..

Major Hat Tip to Bjørnar

Two Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) production aircraft were ferried to Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., today, marking the 24^th and 25^th F-35 deliveries to the Department of Defense. The 5^th Generation multirole fighter jets were delivered to the United States Marine Corps and are now assigned to the 2^nd Marine Aircraft Wing’s Marine Fighter/Attack Squadron 501 residing with the host 33d Fighter Wing. U.S. Marine Corps pilots Maj. Joseph Bachmann and Lt. Col. Matt Kelly piloted the aircraft, known as BF-9 and BF-10 respectively, which departed Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, Texas at 1:26 p.m. and 1:42 p.m. CDT for an approximate 90-minute flight to Florida’s Emerald Coast. The jets became the 10^th and 11^th F-35s to join Eglin’s fleet. Both jets will be used for pilot and maintainer training at the F-35 Integrated Training Center there.
One additional STOVL production jet, BF-11, will join the fleet at Eglin in the coming days. All three jets were formally accepted by the U.S. Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) on behalf of the Marine Corps with the signing of Department of Defense Form 250 (DD-250). BF-9 and BF-10 were accepted May 4 while BF-11 was accepted May 5. Prior to acceptance, the three F-35Bs underwent a series of company and government checkout flights at Lockheed Martin’s F-35 production facility in Fort Worth, Texas.

155mm Long Range Land Attack Projectile

BAE can fool themselves if they like, but the writing is on the wall.  Its future growth, its future business opportunities, its future is in America.

Time to completely wall off its US branch so that it can become even more competitive.  But enough of that check this out....

The latest USNI Blog post. The Major won't quit.

The conversation on USNI Blog continues apace.

This time our good Major has switched tactics.  Now she seeks to form solidarity with the readership.  Understand that the reaction to her first two posts were overwhelmingly negative so in order to regain the initiative she's hitting her readers with this drivel (go here to read the whole thing)...

Many readers brought up legitimate points that deserve attention.  It’s a disservice to brush over these, and I have barely even started scratching the surface.  So I’m going to simplify things.  This will (hopefully) be a long-running blog, so I’ll try to stick to addressing one issue per post, posting only every week or so, as time allows.
First issue: is this just about my choices, or is it bigger than that?
For the first few years after my oldest was born, I was on AD, and the scarcity of other female pilots (and absolute lack of pilots who were also single mothers) meant all of my decisions were made in a vacuum with little outside guidance/support.  When faced with the reality of what I was trying and failing to do, I looked at my options and chose the only one that made sense given what was available.  I got out.  Switched over to the Reserves.

It sounds reasonable at first glance right?

Wrong.

Again she's blaming the Marine Corps for a life choice that she made.  Notice the word craft at play here.

"...I was trying and failing to do, I looked at my options and chose the only one that made sense given what was available.  I got out."

You either do or you don't.  There is no try.  Caveman thinking?  Perhaps in this day in age, but to say I was trying my best to be a good Marine and Mother but I was failing so after examining all options I got out....is taking responsibility in the first part of the statement...I was failing...and then laying blame in the second half....chose the only option that made sense given what was available.

Why should the Marine Corps compromise?  Why must we give you a rose garden?  Why should special accommodation be given to you because you're a woman?

And make no mistake about it.  Continued under performing would have been reflected on her annual FitReps.  If she didn't make a decision then a decision would have been made for her.

But she knows that.

But the following is what really burns me up and has me ready to punch walls...

My experience has shown me that it’s not just me, not by far.  As more women enter the service, dual military marriages increase, and men take on greater responsibilities at home because of shifting gender roles, increasing loss of mid-grade enlisted and officer members absolutely will affect readiness and numbers.   Many of the responses back this up.
The Reserves are one choice, made by many.  But the inefficiencies of the Reserves bother me, the severe limitations of the Reserve contributions.  Within my own job I’ve tried to manage that and somewhat improve it, but why stop there?  Innovation is not the enemy.  There are certainly holes in some of the ideas I will propose in future blogs.  But that’s where informed, open-minded readers come in.
There are shortages in the force, even with manpower drawdowns.  There are members—of both genders, again—that want to stay but cannot with existing policies.  Is it possible to be on the tip of a spear, or to make flag rank, pursuing alternate career paths like those I’ve suggested and will suggest?  Likely not.  But most of us would happy to retire at 20 or 30 at any rank as long as we feel we were able to make a difference and continue to serve.

 Sorry for the bum rush I'm about to hit ya with but here we go....

My experience has shown that it's not just me, not by far.

Oh OK, so what you're telling us is that this nonstop whining is being done by others?  Not buying it. You chose to grace the pages of that blog with this false controversy all for selfish motives.  Now you seek cover by including others in your issue.

 But the inefficiencies of the Reserves bother me, the severe limitations of the Reserve contributions. 

This one is too easy.  If she knows of ways to improve the efficiency of the Reserve Component then their are far too many avenues available for her to make recommendations.  On a local level and Reserve wide.  This has the feel of a false crusade.  With the Major acting as the heroine, enlightening the stupid, sexist Marine Corps, not because she wants to change things to help herself...NO!  She wants the changes to make the Marine Corps Reserve more efficient.

BULLSHIT!

But most of us would happy to retire at 20 or 30 at any rank as long as we feel we were able to make a difference and continue to serve. 

Hell, a private wants to be a Sgt.  A Sgt want to be a Gunny.  A Gunny wants to be a Sgt Major.  A Sgt Major wants to be the Sgt Major of the Marine Corps.  And I can play the exact same games with the Officer ranks.

Shit!  I wanted to be Commandant (quite honestly I still do....the changes I would make!).

One last thing.

You're wondering what all this has to do with the first 5 minutes of Full Metal Jacket.

Quite simple.

The Marine Corps works best.  The nation works best when ALL are treated equally.  No favoritism for race, color, sex or national heritage.

This thinly veiled blog post is calling for special treatment for women.  She'll probably prevail and that's the shame of it all.

US Army HALO Training...Old Skool.

Check out the rate of descent for these guys.  They're all skinny as hell but are dropping like rocks.

200th flight for F-35B test aircraft BF-3

NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. – U.S. Marine Corps test pilot Lt. Col. Matthew Kelly flies F-35B test aircraft BF-3 in an Atlantic test range May 3. The 200th test flight for BF-3 measured stresses on the aircraft during supersonic maneuvers. The F-35B is the variant of the Joint Strike Fighter for the U.S. Marine Corps, capable of short take-offs and vertical landings for use on amphibious ships or expeditionary airfields to provide air power to the Marine Air-Ground Task Force. The F-35B is undergoing test and evaluation at NAS Patuxent River prior to delivery to the fleet.

F-35 and the Brits.

Today is the day that the Brits finally decide (again) which version of the F-35 they're going to buy.

Everyone and their mother has been writing me sending me articles about the expected decision.

Quite honestly.

I don't care anymore.

What this is about isn't about their choice of airplane.  This is about the British people, their place in the world, how they see themselves, how we see them and what they actually are.

Just like everyone else I'll post the decision but (sorry my friends across the pond...I know you think I Brit bash but this is gonna be vicious) its going to be about the Brit people, its governement and its fall from world power to world disgrace.

Its gonna be a bumpy ride.  I can't wait to hear the official decision and official explanation.

via British Forces News.

Ministers are expected to confirm the choice of fighter aircraft for the Royal Navy's new carriers today - jump jets.
They have been considering whether to do a U-Turn and scrap a decision taken less than two years ago to move to a “cats and traps” take off and landing system for the carriers for the F35-C - or conventional version - Joint Strike Fighter.
The original choice of aircraft was a centrepiece of the Strategic Defence and Security Review in October 2010 and trumpeted by David Cameron as the best option. Since then the projected bill for converting the carriers has risen from four hundred million pounds to two billion.
If the government does opt for the short-take-off-vertical-landing option, it would mean switching back to the F35-B fighter, which has a shorter range and carries fewer weapons. It would also mean the UK's carrier fighter aircraft could not fly from French and American carriers.
It comes at a time when ministers want to be seen as keeping costs under control at the Ministry of Defence. A decision to order jump jets would also bring the carriers into operational service far sooner than was first envisaged.

An LCS rebuttal. Guest Post.

Remember this post I did on the LCS?  I wondered aloud about whether or not we were seeing the rebirth of the original destroyer...a PT Boat killer.

Well Lane responded to that post and I thought that response was so outstanding that I felt it needed to be a blog entry all its own.  Check it out below...

Sol to answer your question no we're not seeing a rebirth of the torpedo boat destroyer. The torpedo as a primary small craft (and ship) based weapon was replaced by the guided missile over 40 years ago.

LCS is intended to deal with "swarms" of small boats. This is ridiculous on multiple levels. The first one is what nation is going to attack us with swarms of small boats other than Iran? The answer is none. The reason for this is that you come up with attacking navies with small boats when that's in fact all you've got since you've isolated yourself from the world community and don't have access to anything else.

Another reason it's ridiculous is that LCS is going to be armed with a 3.5 range missile to deal with small boats. There are literally dozens of systems with a greater range than 3.5 miles that can be carried by small boats.

More importantly is that the main small craft threat isn't a bunch of speed boats armed with RPG's, machine guns, or explosives for suicide attacks but rather actual guided missile boats that have LCS both seriously out ranged and can as fast or faster.

Any basic surface combatant from a missile boat, corvette, frigate, etc., should be able to deal with the modest threat of speed boats given the main surface threat continues to be anti ship missiles launched by boats, ships, aircraft, etc.

LCS is frankly a totally flawed concept on myriad levels. The entire notion of swapping modules has been thrown out by the USN because the modules are too expensive. So in effect each LCS will be a single role ship. This assumes they any of the modules to eventually work as none do at present nor are projected to work any time soon.
LCS simply seems to be about putting large numbers of sexy hulls in the water so surface warfare officers have a greater chance to get their tickets punched. The only real utility of the ships is that they carry 2 helicopters. The fact we have to spend $500+ million for them plus the additional cost of the module(s) in order to carry 140+ knot helicopters around at 40+ knots is absurd.

The one thing in that video that interested me, however, was the projection that LCS can go 1,000nm at 40+ knots. That's one single day of operations at max speed. In effect the USN took the original Street fighter concept of a 500 or so ton fast boat added two helicopters and came up with a 3,000 ton speed boat.

In comparison the rest of the world builds 3,000 ton general purpose frigates that carry 1 or 2 helicopters at lower cost but can also undertake various things LCS can not.

LCS has extremely little ability to deal with surface threats. Assuming they get the ASW module to work only ships with this module have ASW capacity. The ships have extremely limited defense against aerial threats. They can't escort other ships, they're not equipped to do radar picket, naval gunfire support, etc. On top of all this they're far less survivable than a normal warship.

Frankly the USN is out of it's mind. They not only designed single role ships that require each separate combat module to be integrated but then went and bought two different classes each with it's own systems.

Worse they are giving up having small cost effective patrol and mine warfare craft in favor of an ill equipped over priced frigate sized speed boat. By doing away with general purpose frigates they're forcing every real mission to be performed by a DDG. Moreover, every single DDG we have is a large expensive AEGIS equipped ship. It's ridiculous.

It's not just LCS. Instead of putting a couple of the new guns on a cost effective NGS ship they put them on a 15,000 ton cruiser that costs $6 billion. Even more ironic they may end up buying more DDG-1000's because they're cheaper to operate than a DDG-51 III, the DDG-51 III is going to cost a lot more than anyone thought, and DDG-1000 performs shallow water asw far better.

I'm still waivering but he makes a strong case.

A very strong case that the LCS concept is fucked up from the floor up.

 

Blog Field Day.

Cleaning up the Blog a bit.

List of changes....

1.  Dynamic Views, YouTube Channel, Scribd and Twitter links are all located underneath the photo at the top of the page.
2.  Popular posts widget has been added to the side of the page.
3.  Blog archive has been added.
4.  Blog list has been scrubbed.
5.  Picaso image has been added.
6.  Post titles will be more descriptive.

More to come.

Fangs out. Another Joe Copalman Special.

Nigel for President.