Joint Forcible Entry Exercise 14B

A C-17 Globemaster III takes off from a degraded airfield Dec. 6, 2014, during the U.S. Air Force Weapons School's Joint Forcible Entry Exercise 14B at the Nevada Test and Training Range. JFEX exercises participants' ability to synchronize aircraft movements from geographically separated bases, command large formations of dissimilar aircraft in high-threat airspace, and tactically deliver and recover combat forces via air drops and combat landings on an unimproved landing strip. The C-17 is assigned to March Air Reserve Base, Calif. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joshua Kleinholz/Released)

Well this is a capability you don't see everyday.  If the USAF gets serious about this...and if they can include not only the US Army but also the Marine Corps in this planning/exercise then we'll be well on our way to rebuilding our Rapid Deployment Forces again.

An awesome sidenote is that this takes away a huge selling point for the A400M.  You won't use either airplane on dirt strips very often but its nice to show that for about the same cost as the turbo prop driven airplane you can get the strategic reach and lift of the C-17.

LCS News. A turd is still a turd...even if you stick a few more missiles on it....

Even with the upgrade its still a poorly armed ship. Consider. The long retired Pegasus hydrofoil patrol boats and World War 2 US PT boats were both more heavily armed than this piece of Shiite.
Check out this tidbit from Navy Matters...

In addition, all the fundamental flaws that made the LCS such a poor design still remain. The ship has weight and stability issues, lack of compartmentation, structural weaknesses, excessive vibration at speed, weak flight decks, poor seakeeping by both versions, insufficient stores, inadequate range, poor endurance, sub-standard survivability (though some additional shrapnel protection will be added), etc.

Read the whole thing here.

That about sums it up.  Protecting manufacturing is more important than acquiring a capable warship.  I'd like to be surprised but I'm not.  Even sadder?  It would be so easy to do this right but for some reason they insist on sticking with this substandard, and poorly conceived naval vessel.

A turd is still a turd.....even if you stick a few more missiles on it.

Ebola News. Two blogs, two differing opinions...UPDATED!

Remember that little thing that was spreading in Africa named Ebola?

Well we haven't heard much lately and that's curious because we still have a ton of Soldiers and Marines either in country or heading there (101st you drew the short straw you unlucky bastards).

Which brings me to this.  Two blogs I follow, American Mercenary and Shepard of the Gurneys, have differing opinions on whats happening (did you know that a person with symptoms was recently admitted to a hospital here in the US?).

I have no idea.  My prediction from the past?  They're keeping a lid on things till after the Christmas holidays.  We'll see if my pessimistic view, along with SOTG is correct or if AM is right.

UPDATE!  SOTG is reporting that Sierra Leone is cancelling Christmas.  Details here.

Air power theory takes another hit...

Thanks to Info Infanterie for the link.

So what does the above photo have to do with anything?  Well first check out this website.

Let me get you up to speed.  The IDF struck sites in Syria.  Supposedly they were time sensitive and it was a short fused mission so the Israeli's went in hard and fast.

They launched Popeye standoff missiles at the target and supposedly were able to destroy it....but.....

Syrian air defenses didn't lay down and die.  They fought back and launched several anti-air missiles at the Israeli Air Force.  This time though they were not only aiming at aircraft but also missiles.

And the Syrians claim that they were able to knock one down.

A degraded and damaged air defense system was able to knock down an Israeli stand off weapon.

Air power theory just took another hit.

It appears that attackers will need so many cruise missiles that they overwhelm defenders OR they need to develop supersonic and faster attack missiles.

Payloads over platforms.  The US Navy is on the right track.

Canadian report confirms continued F-35 price increase.

Major thanks to ELP Blog!

via Ottawa Citizen

Defence officials estimate they will actually need more than $1 billion in contingency funds to protect against the effects of a weaker Canadian dollar, inflation and other countries cutting back on how many planes they purchase.
The report suggests that if an extra $1 billion is needed, “the remaining shortfall could be met by buying fewer aircraft.” It adds that the government “will consider the frozen acquisition envelope,” suggesting the $9-billion cap could be removed.
An attached government-commissioned review of National Defence’s numbers by Quebec accounting firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton noted defence officials had not actually studied whether it was feasible to buy fewer than 65 F-35s.
Canada had originally planned to purchase 80 F-35s to replace its CF-18s, but scaled back the order in 2006. The government has not said why it reduced the plan, but senior military commanders have suggested 65 is the minimum the air force needs.

Read the whole thing but what you see in the above passage is a classic "death spiral" scenario.

You heard it here first boys and girls.

This turkey is about to die.  The world economy is probably going to be the main culprit too.  The F-35 was based on a weak dollar, high oil prices and continued growth in Europe and China.  We're seeing the exact opposite now.  A strong dollar (getting stronger all the time as Southern Europe and China continue to slow down), cratering oil prices and weak consumer spending world wide.

This does explain the "extra" F-35 in that sinful Congressional bill though.  They're trying desperately to increase production but it just isn't working.

This is going to be fun to watch.

Even Taiwan is building a better LCS than us!

Ok.  This is getting to be a tiring meme.

We develop a concept to fit a need.  We build the first in class.  Its deficient in so many areas that it isn't funny.

Then an ally builds something better.

Israel set itself up for more violence.

Check this out from Jerusalem Online.

The autopsy of the Palestinian minister who died yesterday during a demonstration does not resolve the dispute between the Palestinian Authority and Israel regarding the cause of death - although Israeli officials have admitted that conflict with the Border Police officer may have led to his death.
Medical sources in Israel are aware of the details of the investigation of the joint autopsy that showed that senior Palestinian official Ziad Abu Ein died of a heart attack. However, the source added that it is quite possible the heart attack was caused by stress due to the fact that he was held and dragged by the neck by a border policeman.

No matter how you slice it this is unwanted in Israel.  They're undergoing a change in government, they just conducted a highly successful but extremely risky airstrike in Syria and now this.

I expect more fighting to erupt there and perhaps another Protective Edge 2 military operation.

Dragging anyone around by the neck is just plain wrong.  Being a Israeli Border Policeman and doing it to a Palestinian official is just plain stupid.  Oh and that's coming from a guy that does not sympathize with the Palestinians.

Malaysian Army receives first batch of AV8 Infantry Fighting Vehicles.

Thanks for the link Jonathan.

via Janes.

The Malaysian Army took delivery of the first 12 of an order of 257 Deftech AV8 Gempita armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) at the manufacturer's facility in Pekan on 6 December.
Malaysian Army Chief General Raja Mohamed Affandi bin Raja Mohamed Noor accepted the 12 vehicles, all of which are the IFV-25 variant, in a ceremony witnessed by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, who formally named the vehicle the Gempita, which is a Malay term for thunderous noise.
The AV8 replaces Malaysia's obsolete fleet of SIBMAS (6x6) and Condor (4x4) AFVs and is a further development of the Turkish FNSS Savunma Sistemleri Paris (8x8).
The IFV-25 variant is fitted with a one-person FNSS Sharpshooter turret armed with a stabilised ATK Armament Systems M242 25 mm dual-feed cannon and an FN MAG 58M 7.62 mm co-axial machine gun (MG). Of the 257 vehicle order of 12 variants, a total of 46 vehicles will be in this configuration.
The 12 vehicles will be assigned to the 19th Battalion, Royal Malay Regiment, which is said to require 88 Gempitas in total.
Firing trials in South Africa are expected to be carried out in the first quarter of 2015 on the AFV-30 and ATGW variants, 68 and 54 units of which have been ordered. The AFV-30 mounts a Denel Land Systems (DLS) two-person LCT-30 turret with a DLS stabilised 30 mm GI-30 external dual-feed linkless cannon and an FN MAG 58M MG while the ATGW variant also has a LCT-30 turret with a bank of two Denel Dynamics Ingwe anti-tank missiles on each side.

You know what I'm thinking.  Yeah...even Malaysia...but not the USMC.  I'm running out of walls.