Defence Technology Review Sept Edition! PLUS BONUS Australian Armored Vehicle Program Overview!!!

Defence Technology Review Sept Edition (here) and the bonus Australian Armored Vehicle Program Overview (here) IS A MUST READ!  Drink it in boys...this might be one of the best yet!

JLTV Recon Variant to sport 30mm cannon? The US Army's first "miss" since its turn to preparing for a peer fight.

Thanks to Pete for the link!

vehicle shown is the Oshkosh Light All Terrain Vehicle...its similar enough to the JLTV to almost be a twin.

via Fox News.

Col. William T. Nuckols Jr., director of mounted requirements at the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence (MCOE) at Fort Benning, Ga., says the shift to new vehicles is a great opportunity for scout platoons to upgrade from the Humvees’ M2 .50-caliber gun.
“The design work for [the M2] was started in 1917 by General John Pershing,” he explained. “I don’t want to bash it; it’s the best heavy machine gun in the world, but technology has continued to move.”
Nuckols explained that, while scouts’ primary role is reconnaissance, they need heavy firepower when they run into enemy forces. “In a chance encounter scouts will be looking to engage the enemy, then disengage as quickly as possible,” he said.
A version of the M230-LF 30-mm. cannon used on Apache helicopters would significantly boost scout platoons’ weaponry, according to Nuckols, citing the cannon’s devastating explosive rounds.
“Having an exploding bullet is good when you’re facing enemy soldiers who are in a vehicle or behind a wall,” he said. “Anytime we can shoot bullets that explode, versus bullets that don’t explode, that’s a good thing.”
The M230’s 30-mm. rounds also cause much greater damage over long distances than the M2’s 12.7 mm bullets. Whereas the .50-caliber bullet can pierce just 7/8ths of an inch of armor at 100 meters, the 30-mm. round can penetrate 1.37 inches of armor at 500 meters, according to Nuckols. “At 1,500 meters, it actually goes up to [penetrating] 1.7 inches [of armor],” he added.

This is the Army's first certified miss since they started prepping to fight a peer opponent.  What do I mean?  The JLTV has the ride height of an MRAP, weighs more than a Humvee and its gonna depend on a 30mm cannon for those chance encounters with enemy forces?

Total miss.  The vehicle is wrong.  The focus on firepower is wrong.  Ignoring sensors so that they can conduct surveillance at distance from cover is wrong!

Above you see the Spanish Army solution to the Recon Vehicle issue.  Is it perfect?  Far from it.  Is it a better idea than what we're seeing from the US Army?  I personally think so.  Notice that mast mounted sensors?  They're focusing on missing those "chance engagements" while still succeeding at their mission of gathering intel on the enemy.

As strange as it might seem, I wonder if the Army is swinging a bit too far back to the direct fire solution meme for dealing with future threats.

Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries interested in producing Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle.

via Reuters.

A partnership in armored vehicles would provide new avenues for MHI, the maker of Japan's main battle tank, to sell its defense technology in overseas markets.
Potential foreign partners could be attracted by MHI's armored vehicle technology, notably its heavy-duty tank engines, its gear technology and water jet propulsion systems that could be used to drive amphibious vehicles.
In its latest budget request on Wednesday, Japan's defense ministry said it will begin research on a new amphibious assault vehicle to replace the AAV7 built by the U.S. unit of BAE Systems Plc (BAES.L). The U.S. Marine Corp is also mulling a replacement for the 40 year old vehicle.

Once again the writer buried the lead.  The real story here is that while Japan is in the midst of purchasing new build AAV's from BAE, they're already looking to partner with a US firm to build a next gen model at the behest of the Japanese govt.

This is thrilling and a bit disappointing when you look at this from a US point of view.

I'm thrilled by the idea of Japan reclaiming its WW2 roots of being a leader in the development of amphibious vehicles.  During that war they had a number of pretty innovative designs that don't get enough notice from armor experts/enthusiasts.  Its a bit disappointing because the USMC was the undisputed world leader in amphibious vehicle tech since the middle of WW2 but appears to be throwing away that lead.

Side note:  Below are a few pics of Japanese amphibious vehicles from WW2. We've made note that the Dragon is roaring and that the Bear has reawakened...are we missing that the Rising Sun seems to be appearing on the horizon?

Confirmed. USAF on path to lose air superiority as early as 2025, as late as 2030.

Thanks to TTMedical for the link!

via War On The Rocks

America is on track to lose air supremacy in contingencies involving near-peer air combat. Even as soon as next year, achieving air superiority in a war with China within a politically and operationally effective time frame might be doubtful. In a 2025 war, American aircraft losses are expected to be severe. In a 2030 war, the U.S. Air Force, after assessing currently funded improvement programs, now expects to no longer be able to win the air superiority battle.

Then this.

First, the Air Superiority Flight Plan advances conflicting objectives. Instead of pursuing a direct replacement for the F-22 air superiority fighter, the plan proposes a family of capabilities. This family would include quickly fielding a new, affordable penetrating counter-air capability that eschewed revolutionary next-generation technology to meet a 2030 deadline that is, after all, less than two presidents away. Meeting this timeline seems to limit options to an evolutionary development of a current aircraft, either the F-35 or F-22.
What might this penetrating counter-air platform look like? The F-35 is the obvious choice as it is already in low-rate production, but there are some concerns. The aircraft is small, heavy, and already densely packed with electronics.Thermal management has proven difficult, which makes adding new capabilities without significant changes to internal plumbing problematic. Furthermore, the aircraft’s design means fuel consumption is already high, adversely impacting range. Additional modifications may exacerbate this by adding weight. Some suggest fitting the aircraft with a new engine for range and payload improvements, but given the limited space available, this might require a major redesign. Moreover, meeting the Air Superiority Plan would mean moving the F-35 design away from its primary air-to-ground focus. History suggests turning “bombers” into “fighters” is hard.
The F-35 program’s long delays seem to demonstrate the general technical difficulty in evolving the aircraft’s design. It’s already taken almost ten years from the F-35’s first flight to reach today’s limited air-to-ground focussed initial operational capability. Several more years will pass before the aircraft has the full capabilities originally sought. Evolving the F-35 design to the degree envisaged in the Air Superiority Plan in time to reach a 2030 full operational capability deadline seems doubtful.
In contrast with the F-35, the F-22 would need to be bought back into production to serve as the underlying platform for the penetrating counter-air capability. The F-22 has been in service for a decade and is currently undergoingmodernization and reliability improvements. The F-22 is twin-engined and considerably larger than the F-35. This means the F-22 has more thrust and space available to accommodate ongoing upgrades. The F-22, for example, can cruise supersonically and carry twice as many air-to-air missiles internally as the F-35. This much higher overall performance undergirds U.S. Air Force claims that two F-22s have a similar operational performance to eight F-35s.
This Air Force “two equals eight” claim illustrates the magnitude of the task if the aim is to upgrade the F-35 to meet the Air Superiority Plan’s objectives.

Story here. 

Is the Trump trip to Mexico really their president being worried about Southern Command's warning?

Everyone is trying to figure out why the President of Mexico invited Trump (and Hillary) to Mexico to discuss border issues.

MSNBC is spinning themselves in knots and the rest of the left is losing their minds.

I can't help but remember the news story about Southern Command warning that terrorists were coming thru the southern border.  This is pure speculation on my part but what if you got word that an attack was imminent?  What if you knew that Trump was about to basically call for sealing the border?  What if you knew that the terrorists would be tracked back to crossing the Mexico-US border?

If you were President of Mexico you would want to get out ahead of the story.  You would want to show a willingness to cooperate with the future president on securing the border while at the same time bolstering economic ties.

Like I said its pure speculation but I haven't heard a better theory.

USMC experimenting with Squad configuration. They're wrecking the ACV plan before its even selected!

Thanks to Joe for the link!

via Janes.

The US Marine Corps (USMC) is experimenting with new structures and equipment sets for infantry squads and will trial various designs with an operational unit over the coming year.
"We're going to be redesigning the squad make up down at the lowest level to see what the squad should look like as we experiment," Lieutenant General Robert Walsh, head of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, told reporters during a 30 August breakfast meeting.
Squads in 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, will be reconfigured in a variety organisational constructs that include "different sizes, different make up, different fire team make up", and more, he explained.

Anyone want to place a bet that the Squad will go smaller?  Do you really believe that they will roll out a 9 man squad?

The point is stark.

If the Marine Corps jacks around with the size of the Squad...if it grows to 15 or even 20 Marines then you can basically throw out the ACV.

Why?

Because the ACV was built around the 13 man squad.  If the Squad grows then the number of vehicles required grows.  Additionally you're not only adding Marines but equipment.  We don't know what the "futurists" are thinking but I keep hearing about UAVs and Cyber at the Squad level.

That's gonna increase the amount of gear carried.  Which means that the Marine Corps is making the ACV obsolete before it even enters service.

So what is the game?

I have no idea.  My thinking is that the Survivability Upgrade for the AAV made no sense if the ACV was ACTUALLY a priority program for the Marine Corps (why waste the money?).  If you make the Squad larger then all of a sudden the ACV is no longer viable and the AAV gets pushed toward that 60 plus years of service.  The excuse will be that Squad integrity is important, that the ACV doesn't meet that need due to the changing battlefield and they get to upgrade more AAVs on the cheap while they lavishly buy every toy under the sun for the Wing.

Marine Corps Ground Component Officers need to sack the fuck up.  Neller is obviously ball-less, Dunford quit before he even had the job long enough to put up his "I love me" wall and the stench of Amos lingers because his little buddy Davis still has a job after his continued fuck ups (how hasn't he been fired after the crashes, the poor availability rate of the F-18s and the CH-53s falling apart?).

The Marine Corps needs an Alfred Grey for the 21st Century...a reformer to return it to its warrior roots.

"Every Marine is, first and foremost, a rifleman. All other conditions are secondary".

USAF wants next generation fighter by late 2020s? The timetable tells it all...

via Defense News.

WASHINGTON — After undergoing a yearlong effort that explored the tactics and technologies needed to control the skies in the future, the Air Force is taking its first steps toward making its next fighter jet a reality.

The service has already begun preliminary work ahead of a 2017 analysis of alternatives that will shape the requirements and acquisition strategy for the F-35 follow on, which the Air Force been termed Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) or Penetrating Counter Air (PCA).

But Brig. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who led the Air Superiority 2030 enterprise capability collaboration team (ECCT), emphasized that there are two major differences between the NGAD effort and its that of legacy fighter jets. The first is the relatively rapid method of acquiring it.

“We need to have something by the late 2020s,” he said in an interview with Defense News. “I think a realistic timeline is somewhere around 2028 with key investments in some key technology areas, you’d be able to have some initial operational capability of a penetrating counter air capability.”

The second difference relates to the recently concluded Air Superiority 2030 study, which made the case that the Air Force’s future dominance will rest not on a single platform, such as a sixth generation fighter jet, but on an integrated, networked family of systems. That combination of penetrating and stand-off capabilities includes a fighter plane, but also a number of space, cyber and electronic warfare assets.

So let me get this straight.  The F-35 MIGHT achieve full operational capability in 2021 (that's a huge MIGHT according to the GAO) yet they're already looking at a follow on fighter?  A service life of 8 years?

Oh and make no mistake about it.  The guy said F-35 follow on.

My prediction isn't popular on F-16.net or at HQMC but its spot on.  The F-35 is not only obsolete before it enters service, is not only caught up in a death spiral that will see the numbers purchased sliced beyond recognition but they're finally admitting it.  Its not a full throated "we fucked up" but more like a series of news articles telling the tale.  Missile/Arsenal planes?  The idea of buying more F-16s and F-15s for the USAF?  The USN stating flat out that they need more Super Hornets?

The only outlier is the USMC.  HQMC has sold their soul for this airplane and the ramifications of this decision will be felt for generations.

I have always been a supporter of STOVL aircraft, but the price the USMC is paying for the F-35 is just way too high.  Maybe the answer will be found in developments by the Army and Navy with the next generation rotor craft.  It might be time for the USMC to give up on fast jets (yeah...I can't believe I'm even entertaining the idea but the Wing is out of control).

Brazilian VBTR-MP 6x6 APC in action (pic heavy...part 2)

NOTE:  When we talk about wheeled APCs we always forget about the Brazilian VBTR-MP.  Why?  I have no idea.  This mini-SuperAV is really one of the most advanced designs placed into service in the past few years.  The fact that IVECO was able to work with the Brazilian Army & Marines, get the vehicle plant setup and production started in less time than its taken the USMC to do a downselect for the final ACV candidates says it all.  Despite their problems, Brazil's military is doing it right.

Brazilian VBTR-MP 6x6 APC in action (pic heavy...part 1)

Altay Main Battle Tank finally going into production.

Geez the more I look at this tank the more I think its just a Turkish K2...I know you guys disagree but dang!

via Military Tech Blog

“Following our initial offer in January, we submitted our final offer early today upon the request by the SSM,” Otokar CEO Serdar Görgüç told MT. “As the maker of the 100% indigenous battle tank, we are ready for the job with our human resources, experience and know-how.”
Görgüç added that the company also looks at meeting similar needs for Turkey’s friendly and allied countries in the future, meaning export. Saying that a number of Otokar products have already been in use by NATO and UN forces, Görgüç explained: “We believe that the ALTAY will attract attention from other countries following the start of its mass production, even paving the way for production possibilities in other countries with the participation of Turkey’s allies in the project.”
The final offer included the mass production of 250 ALTAY MBTs and their integrated logistic support operations, according to the statement made to the SSM.

Interesting.  Quite honestly I'm waiting for the next shoe to drop and all these defense companies become state owned enterprises.  The days of negotiating price might soon come to an end.

Open Comment Post. Aug 31, 2016.

I've been away giving General Flynn of the Trump campaign my two cents on necessary reforms, procurement, manning in the USMC.  How I got their attention is beyond me but trust that a scheduled 10 minute call dragged out to 2 hours plus a 1 hour follow up.

Just bullshitting ya!  My internet went out.  I'm back up.  So gents...what's on your minds?

Chinese Airborne Infantry Fighting Vehicle, Gen 2. via China Defense Blog!

Story here.