Boeing F/A-28 Tiger Hornet by Kitsune.

Republicans have turned on the Pentagon....Sequestration is a fact of life.

via The Daily Caller.

The Department of Defense has continued to cry wolf about the possible results of sequestration. But before making serious claims about not being able to promote our soldiers, or move them to new locations, or attend military schools essential for career advancement, they should probably take a closer look at what the Pentagon is spending taxpayer dollars on.
In an attempt to persuade congress from letting sequestration happen again next year, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel recently sent a letter to Congress stating that the DOD would have to inflict “an extremely severe package of military personnel actions including halting all accessions, ending all permanent change of station moves, stopping discretionary bonuses and freezing promotions,” in addition to cutting weapons programs and other actions that will hinder military readiness and weaken national security.
Well, that just sounds terrible doesn’t it?
Before you panic, thinking our military has no money to conduct business, consider the following expenditures that are currently a priority to the Pentagon in the wake of sequestration.
The military recently spent $34 million on a construction project in Afghanistan. The money was spent building a headquarters for planning U.S. military operations. Unfortunately, the structure is unoccupied and will most likely never be used. It will either be demolished or handed over to the Afghans.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State received $3.5 million from the Department of Defense to purchase land around the base to protect gophers that inhabit the area. The DOD also gave Eglin Air Force Base in Florida $1.75 million to save a tortoise habitat.
Less known, but even more wasteful is the military’s acquisition process. The U.S. Army has been attempting to find a replacement for the current light attack/reconnaissance helicopter, the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior for over 3 decades. First came the Comanche helicopter program, but after 21 years and $6.9 billion the program was cancelled.
Next the Army developed the ARH-70 (Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter) program which was cancelled after 4 years and cost the taxpayers $3 billion. Most recently, the U.S. Army decided to put on hold their $6-8 billion Armed Aerial Scout helicopter program.
30 years and $10-15 billion of taxpayer dollars later, the U.S. Army only has an updated version of the original OH-58D helicopter they’ve sought to replace. The Kiowa Warrior (as aged as it is) was an essential aircraft through out the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan and maintains the most successful mission capability and readiness rate of any other helicopter in the Army’s fleet.
What this comes down to is uncontrollable waste. The Pentagon’s spending priorities are disheveled in addition to their fiscal mismanagement and decision-making abilities. Spending millions on gophers and vacant buildings is a classic example of fraud, waste, and abuse of not only military assets, but taxpayer dollars as well. The Department of Defense even has a hotline people can call for waste like that. And wasting billions on mere attempts to improve military equipment shows a completely broken system that must be addressed.

The Daily Caller is a conservative publication.

For this article to be part of my daily updates tells me one thing.  Republicans have abandoned the Pentagon and the ground is subtly being laid for sequestration to continue.  Democrats won't save the day because they don't like military spending and they have other priorities.

Hagel is running around the country sounding the alarm bells on sequestration but the message is falling on deaf ears.  No one is listening and those that are don't believe.

I'm preaching to the wind, but the cuts coming will be much more dramatic than is being told.  The service chiefs WILL cut personnel to pay for programs and the only programs that are protected is one.  The F-35.

Winslow Wheeler was right.

The F-35 is gobbling the Pentagon.  This is turning from a conversation about capability to one concerning affordability.  Necessary weapon systems are now threatened to support one airplane.

F-8U Crusader, Da Nang, Vietnam. via War Machine.

Time to stick a fork in a common misnomer. The USMC needs the F-35. UPDATE:

Note:  This post was prompted by this comment from Lane...

Essentially what the USN "knows" is that instead of being on a procurement holiday like the USAF and USMC it has actually been continually purchasing fighter planes the past couple decades. Thus the majority of it's fighter aircraft do not require immediate replacement. The USN has options and can live without the F-35C. Certainly the F-35C brings more capability to the table than continued purchases of F/A-18's but it also brings far greater operating costs, as NAVAIR leaked some time ago, and thus the trade offs in acquiring the F-35C are not cut and dried compared to other customers.

This is so far from the truth it hurts.

The USMC bought British Harriers.
via DefenseTech.

Yup, you read that correctly. With the help of spare parts scavenged from Britain’s old GR9 Harriers that the Marine Corps just bought from the UK, the Marines could keep their AV-8B Harrier jump jets flying until 2030. Yes, the Harriers could serve alongside, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, and whatever jet is selected as the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Surveillance and Strike jet. Remember, the F-35B short-takeoff and vertical landing version of the JSF was originally supposed to start replacing the Marines’ Harriers and F/A-18 Hornets by oh about now. You all know what’s happened to that plan. The AV-8B entered service with the Marines in the mid-1980s.
Naval Air Systems Command has done a structural analysis of the Harriers’ airframes and concluded that the jets will be good, with plenty of maintenance, to fly through 2030, said Rear Adm. Donald Gaddis, the Navy’s program executive officer for tactical aviation during the Navy League’s annual Sea, Air, Space conference in National Harbor, Md.

This takes care of the issue with getting fast jets to the MEUs.  It also takes care of Marine Corps ground support missions.  We have planes available that are fully STOVL that can be available until 2030 at least.  And when NAVAIR says that, you can pretty much bank on it.  That gives us another 16 years that we can develop a viable STOVL replacement.  If we follow the NAVY lead and it relies on IRST and doesn't have to be biased toward stealth operations then a supersonic, STOVL airframe, loaded down with long range IRST missiles can be the war winning platform for our MEU's in the pacific.

F/A-18 offered at bargain price. 
via CBC

The Super Hornet currently sells for about $55 million US apiece; the Pentagon expects the F-35 to cost twice as much — about $110 million. But only 20 per cent of the cost of owning a fighter fleet is the actual sticker price of the planes. Eighty per cent is the operating cost — what it takes to keep them flying. That means everything from pilots and fuel to maintenance and spares.

For the cost of replacing half the projected F-35's with Super Hornets I can get everyone of the MPCs, ACVs, JLTVs and CH-53Ks that we could hope for and still have money left over to buy some other much needed gear.  And that's if the 110 million dollar price tag actually flows to the Marine Corps buy and not to the foreign customers that come to the program later.

I posted this to say one thing.

We can wait and get a Super Harrier from scratch that does everything we need.

We can do the jamming mission by buying Growlers.

We can do our carrier mission by buying Super Hornets.

The only reason why we're stuck to the F-35 is because we insist on being stuck.

An airplane does not make the Marine Corps.  The Infantry does.  Every Marine is an Infantryman, not a technician working on a flight line.  So why are we cutting Infantry Battalions instead of biting the bullet, marching up to the Pentagon and telling the powers that be that one airplane will not gobble up the Marine Corps?

UPDATE:
Somehow, we all missed it.  The AV-8B is already in the process of replacing two seat F/A-18D's.  This from Defense Tech.

Britain has agreed to sell all of its 74 decommissioned Harrier jump jets, along with engines and spare parts, to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps — a move expected to help the Marines operate Harriers into the mid-2020s and provide extra planes to replace aging two-seat F-18D Hornet strike fighters.

Somehow in the rush of the news that the Marines were getting extra Harriers, buried was the fact that they would not only provide a buffer for the Harrier but a replacement for older Hornets. 

Side Note:  One thing keeps popping up that causes concern.  Operating costs.  If we're having to swallow a huge bill to buy the airplane and then have to pay crazy costs to keep it running then what the fuck over?  If upkeep becomes prohibitive then this should be an automatic no-go.  The EFV was canceled for less issues than the F-35 has.  Enough time has passed where there should be no more questions about this airplane.  Either its going to work or it isn't.  I cannot remember a program that has been allowed to drag on this long.

F-35. Lockheed eyes deal for next batch of planes.

via Reuters (read it all there).

Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Co (LMT.N) Chief Executive Marillyn Hewson said the company is making "good progress" in negotiations with the Pentagon about the next two batches of F-35 fighter jets and hopes to complete an agreement in the near term.
Lockheed is building three models of the F-35 for the U.S. military and eight international partner countries - Britain, Australia, Canada, Norway, Turkey, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands. Israel and Japan have also ordered the jet.
Pentagon officials had hoped to reach agreement with Lockheed on the sixth and seventh orders of F-35 jets - deals valued at multiple billions of dollars - around mid-year, after protracted and difficult discussions on the previous order.


The total number of jets involved is 71, with 36 of the planes to be purchased in the sixth production lot, and 35 in the seventh, said Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the Pentagon's F-35 office. He said that number includes 60 F-35s for the U.S. military, and 11 for Australia, Italy, Turkey and Britain.

In the past I would have cheered this.

Today I can only cringe.

One airplane is holding Marine Corps procurement hostage and we can't shoot it in the face and escape.

Spare me the talk about it being necessary.  Spare me the talk about it being impossible to delay without killing the program.  I keep looking over at the Navy and wondering what do they know that everyone else doesn't.  The Air Force, Marine Corps and our allies are all lining up to buy this airplane and Navy Aviation is sitting back--relaxed---chilled the fuck out---laughing at us all.

They're going to buy a miniscule amount of these airplanes and yet they feel confident that they can handle the Chinese hordes that will be thrown against our carriers.

What do they know????

SAS Speed March From Hell...

I've been on some crazy speed marches but this sounds insane.  God bless the fallen and I hope the other Territorial makes it back to health...via the Mirror.

Weighed down by 50lb backpacks, weapons, ammunition and in full uniform, exercises on the Brecon Beacons are ­gruelling enough for troops at any time.
But when they are being put through their paces on the hottest day of the year, that challenge becomes even harder.
And last night, the families of two Territorial Army volunteer soldiers were left devastated after the pair died on a march as temperatures soared to 29C (84F) with health warnings issued for much of the country.
Military top brass have already ordered an inquiry into how the two men were monitored before they collapsed with exhaustion in the blistering heat. They were among six troops who fell ill during the SAS selection test, which included a tortuous speed march. One is believed to be fighting for his life in hospital.
A Special Forces source said: “This should not have happened. Questions are already being asked at the very highest level.”
Another source added: “This is a case of the people succumbing to being affected by the training that they were doing. It was ­particularly hot in that part of the country and they were doing an exercise that would require a lot of physical exertion. All of these men were taken ill, they were not wounded in any way.
“A typical exercise in the Brecon Beacons would involve running long distances in full camouflage uniform. Carrying heavy weights, weapons and radio packs would also be par for the course.” The troops who died on Saturday were part of a 100-strong group trying to make it into the SAS reserves.'

Read the entire story here. 

I've never been to Brecon Beacons but I can't even imagine the terrain.  I've heard stories from Commandos talking about its the hottest, coldest, wettest, driest, flattest, most mountainous places on earth.  Ask a different Commando and you get a different story.  I wonder what the real deal is.

Talisman Sabre 2013 pics.

Marines in the Philippines negotiating for basing rights.

General Simcock...old CO of 1/7...hard as nails.

The Marines are in the Philippines negotiating basing rights...or something like that.  Thanks to everyone that filled my inbox with the news but I just don't see the significance.  We've been down this road too many times. I got excited a couple of times before only to see nothing happened.  I'll save the popping of corks until we see a base established.

Dirty little secret.

The Philippines aren't the lynchpin in the strategy to contain China.

India is.

If we can get a real deal defense treaty with India then China will be fully encircled and will be vulnerable from attack from several different directions.  If the treaty is modeled on the NATO model where an attack against one is an attack against all then war will be particularly costly for the rising dragon.

Marines Share Frank Views with Hagel on Women in Combat

One first sergeant objected strongly, saying that if women could add anything of value to combat infantry units, they would have been handed those missions long ago.

One staff sergeant worried that the Marine Corps’ high standards would have to be lowered if women were assigned to combat. Other Marines in the group agreed, warning that women would not be accepted by their male counterparts living in spartan wartime conditions, or that family lives would suffer, especially for those female Marines hoping to have children.

One lieutenant, however, disagreed with anyone who argued that now is not the right time to start bringing women into combat roles, and several noted that the American armed forces often had led the rest of society, for example, in integrating minorities.

All 15 were forthright, even bold, in expressing their views on a contentious issue with the secretary of defense.

And all 15 of the Marines were women.

Read the entire story here.

Thompson gets it half right about the Humvee Upgrade.

Thompson has an article out at Forbes that makes the case for continuing the JLTV program as is...meaning with Marine Corps participation.  Read it here and a tidbit follows....

JLTV is the product of hard-won lessons in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq — a light utility vehicle that reconciles the need for survivability with the imperatives of mobility, versatility and maintainability. It affords the same 360-degree ballistic and blast protection as an MRAP in a much lighter vehicle that is more fuel-efficient than the humvee. By exploiting new automotive and networking technology, the JLTV will deliver a next-generation jeep that is far safer and more supportable than anything in the joint inventory today.
But that brings me to the impact of budget sequestration on joint-force survivability. Last month, Marine Corps Commandant James Amos told a group of reporters that while he likes the new vehicle and his service needs it, if sequestration continues as currently planned, then “it’s questionable whether I can afford JLTV.” With big manpower bills to pay and other pressing needs that must be met such as finding a replacement for 40-year-old amphibious landing vehicles, the Commandant says he may have no choice but to modify his humvees and forego JLTV.
What that means in stark terms is that someday Marines will die unnecessarily in some overseas fight because they will be riding in a humvee that can’t take direct hits the way a JLTV could. Amos knows that, but he also knows that without a new jumpjet and amphibious tractor, he could take even more casualties. Or he could end up with too few troops after budget cuts to get the job done. So he is engaging in budgetary triage, which means the Marines might back out of the JLTV effort.

Where he's wrong is when it comes to the survivability of the humvee upgrades.  I've followed Granite/Textrons entry closely and I've taken a glance at what BAE had on offer (I don't know if they still are working on something...its been awhile since I checked on their product line) and what they did do is pass blast tests with relative ease.  So protection is checked.  Cost is the issue and the JLTV program was under severe pressure to push down the price even though it delivers stripped down vehicles with less armor than planned.  So cost for upgrades to the humvee are in the unknown category while the cost of the JLTV is in the acceptable range after erasing every bell and whistle and stripping it of alot of its armor.  But a bigger issue emerges for the Marine Corps.

Why is the new mantra with every joint program that the Marine Corps is involved in insists that if you pull out of it or better yet DELAY IT, you will in essence kill it?

This budgetary lack of freedom will bite the Pentagon in the ass.  Some brilliant, hard charging, take no prisoners Commandant is going to tell the SecDef one day to kiss his ass if he wants the Corps in another joint program.

As it now stands the Marine Corps can only kill Marine Corps priority/specific procurements.  The MPC.  Dead.  The ACV.  Delayed.  The JLTV.  Its joint so we can't let you delay it.  The F-35.  Its joint so its safe too.  Something is wrong with this picture.  The Marine Corps is not in charge of its budget, the other services are.  Instead of participating in a joint Army-Marine JLTV program, in hindsight the better option would have been to simply wait till the Army picked a vehicle and then to contract Marine Corps specific modifications.