F-35 News. Failure is confirmed by the budget.

Thanks to Slowman for the link.

Among other topics, the research effort will work closely on what 6th–generation fighter aircraft technologies will be needed to build an aircraft to succeed the 5th–generation F-35...DoD Buzz

via Yahoo

The Pentagon said on Wednesday its fiscal 2016 budget proposal will fund early technology development and prototyping of a "next-generation X-plane" that would eventually succeed the F-35 fighter jet being developed and built by Lockheed Martin Corp.
Defense Undersecretary Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's chief arms buyer, said the funding would be part of a new "aerospace innovation initiative" aimed at ensuring that the U.S. military continued to dominate the skies despite development of so-called fifth-generation stealth fighters by China and others.
He told the House Armed Services Committee the initiative would be headed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, with help from the Air Force and the Navy.
Speaking with reporters during a break in the hearing, Kendall declined to give details on the amount of funding involved in the new initiative since the Pentagon's budget will not be delivered to Congress until Monday.

Don't listen to the talking points.

Watch the budget.

And what does this budget request tell us?  It says that the F-35 is a complete and utter failure.  It says that it will not deliver as promised and that the services will make it work...at least for awhile, but that a replacement needs to be worked on now.

Have you noticed something else?  We don't hear talk about the F-35 serving until 2050 anymore.  Also consider this.  Before this airplane has made it into service the replacement is being planned.

Armed Chinese Drone downed in Nigeria!

Thanks to Tom for the link.

Read the story here.

Typhoon in the vertical.

RAF Typhoon Aircraft from 29(R) Sqn

A Royal Air Force Typhoon jet in a vertical climb over RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire.The aircraft is sporting its newly painted tail depicting 29 Reserve Squadron (29(R)Sqn).

One of the roles of the Typhoon is to protect our national airspace by securing our skies, to do this they maintain a constant Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) force around the clock.

The RAF’s Typhoons are also providing support to NATO by carrying out the Baltic Air Policing role.

5 Separatist Tactical Battle Groups (with Russian Airborne) operating near Debaltseve bridgehead, Ukraine.

via Chapter 97.

Over the recent days the Russian-terrorist troops continued to accumulate forces and resources in the area of the Debaltseve bridgehead.
This is stated by Dmytro Tymchuk on his Facebook page citing the operational data of the Information Resistance, Censor.NET reports.
According to the group's data, at the moment five battalion tactical groups (BTG) of the enemy (at least one of them includes Russian airborne troops) and three composite artillery groups are fighting in different parts of the bridgehead. In addition, there are numerous small formations of the terrorists in the area, which are armed with individual samples of heavy infantry weapons.
"The total number of the Russian-terrorist troops engaged in fighting for Debaltseve foothold is about 2,500 people, up to 35 tanks, about 50 armored combat vehicles, 50 cannon artillery units (including SP guns), as well as at least 22 MLRS units," Tymchuk said.
In addition, he noted that in the area of Debaltseve after an unsuccessful attempt to storm through Troitske to Svetlodarsk, the enemy retreated to their original positions and is restoring the level of combat readiness.
"There is movement of militants' reinforcements through Stakhanov (up to 12 vehicles, mostly covered military trucks, and about 18 armored vehicles). In the area of Vuhlehirsk and in the direction of Svetlodarsk reservoir the enemy continues to accumulate additional tactical reserves, thus preserving significant strike potential of its units," Tymchuk said.

True?  False?  Propaganda?  Real deal info?

I just don't know.

Argentina seeking to buy Chinese VN-1 Wheeled IFVs. via Defesanet News Agency

The minister of defense of argentina, agustin rossi received a delegation of the people's republic of china, on the day 23 january, to treat on topics related to the production for defence, on the eve of the visit We will hold president kirchner to the asian country in february.
The ministry of defence, through the argentine minister agustin rossi, claims that one of the negotiations in progress is That comes from the purchase of a figure has not specified of tanks, but that can reach the hundreds . the model that is being evaluated is vn - 1 ( name of export zbl - 09 ), That was recently acquired by the naval infantry of venezuela.

Slowly but surely....despite economic problems...Argentina is rearming thanks to China's largesse.

The direction they take with fighter planes will be telling.  The delegation to visit China will be with hat in hand and a list of arms to be "loaned"....I wonder if they'll petition for the J-31?

Scheduled NATO Exercise comes at interesting time. Photo by Spc. Tyler Kingsbury

A U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicle of Pale Horse Troop, 4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment provides security while conducting an overwatch during exercise Allied Spirit at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, Jan. 25, 2015. Exercise Allied Spirit includes more than 2,000 participants from Canada, Hungary, Netherlands, United Kingdom and the U.S. Allied Spirit is exercising tactical interoperability and testing secure communications within alliance members

Exercise Allied Spirit was scheduled well in advance of current events in Europe but it comes at an interesting time.

According to the Army's Green Book it was to host approx 3000 soldiers with 22 participating nations.  They might have hit that mark but aren't releasing all the names of the nations attending for .... diplomatic....reasons.

Russia's response to this exercise, the stationing of a US Army Heavy Brigade near their border and US attempts to woo India into our circle should be a point of interest for anyone covering military affairs.

What's that old saying about not poking the bear?

News that will change your life. Greece is about to default.

Major Hat Tip to Bayou Man Blog.






The below is taken from Bayou Man's Blog from the above video.

Q. You owe the ECB 6 million dollars are you not going to pay?

A: Well, if you look at the existing agreement, the existing agreement recognizes that, ah, we can't pay. And it imposes upon us the very strange notion that as a bankrupt state, we must borrow money from our partners - even more money than they've already given us - to repay a central bank which is in the process of printing one trillion Euros. Now, you only have to state this to realize that this is not a God-given, Divine imperative which Europe shouldn't be discussing.

This is going to shake the financial markets to the core.

I know I'm sounding like chicken little but do yourself and your family a favor.  Prepare for drama.  Work while the sun is shining because this could be the first of many indicators of global storms coming.  Make no mistake about it.  A Greek default (even if they try a little word judo to make it sound like something different) will change your life.

NOTE:  The danger here isn't the amount of money involved in the Greek economy.  The danger revolves around a European country seeing default as the answer to its economic problems...along with the idea that in doing so it could have to move away from the Euro.  That could have knock on effects.  What happens if this spreads like a contagion to other countries in economic trouble?  This isn't a threat to the EU.  This is a threat to the enter house of cards that is the global economic system.

15th MEU conducts heliborne extraction training. Photos by Cpl. Steve H. Lopez

Note:  According to the caption on these photos, the Combat Logistics Element was doing "external extraction" training.  I don't know what that is.  If anyone knows, feel free to get me up to speed.  My Google skills let me down and I don't know if this is some kind of fancy vehicle recovery or what!

The military took a hobby and made it "bad"...

If you're a guy of a certain age then you're familiar with remote control aircraft.  For hobbyist they've gotten bigger, certainly more advanced but thats to be expected with the march of time.

What is unexpected is that any remote control airplane, helicopter or even tank (yeah there are some fantastic remote control armored vehicles...some quite large) that you mount a Go-Pro camera on suddenly becomes a drone!

But this is the part that has me concerned...

Obama said drones have the potential to empower people in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago, but the federal government is trying to catch up with the technology’s progression in order to enact laws that ensure safety and privacy. He said a goal in his final years as president "is seeing if we can start providing some sort of framework that ensures that we get the good and minimize the bad.”

Just wow.

A worldwide hobby is going to probably bite the dust because it was militarized and then regulated out of existence.

I believe in a strong defense but joys are being crushed in order to keep nuts, perverts and fools from abusing something that has brought joy to many.

And that sucks.

Falcon Heavy | Flight Animation