French Army & UAE Army - Combined Arms Military Exercise (vid)

Patria AMV 28A @ IDEX 2017

I wondered if Patria would attempt to make an amphibious version of the Patria AMV after Lockheed pulled out of the joint effort on the USMC's Amphibious Combat Vehicle contest.

Looks like the answer is a strong yes.  Who do they hope to attract with this vehicle?  The obvious answer is any country operating the BMP-3F.

Don't get me wrong.  I consider the BMP-3F to be a serviceable vehicle but its rather long in the tooth and the current "hotness" is wheeled amphibious assault vehicles.

What will be interesting is the weapons fit.  They're displaying the AMV-28A with a 30mm cannon along with some attack tank missiles adjacent to the 7.62 RWS mount.  Will that satisfy customers that have grown accustomed to a 100mm gun that can also fire anti-tank missiles?

Time will tell, but the reputation of the Patria AMV and the simple but elegant solution of applying flotation armor should see at least a few sales.

Blast from the past....When we "recovered" Russian nukes?

via Enrique 262 Tumblr Page!

Caption...

On Friday 3 October 1986, off the coast of Bermuda, the Soviet submarine K-219, a Project 667A Navaga-clas (NATO: Yankee I-class) suffered a catastrophic missile silo explosion after seawater leaked into silo six while underwater, leading to a chemical reaction with the liquid propellant from the SLBM inside of it, producing large quantities of nitrogen dioxide gas that eventually detonated, killing three sailors and mortally wounding the submarine.

Thanks to the efforts of her crew, specially of enlisted seaman Sergei Preminin, who perished in his successful mission to shut down the boat’s nuclear reactor, the submarine managed to surface under battery power, where it was intermediately detected by US aircraft, becoming the most photographed soviet submarine of the Cold War.

A soviet tug managed to reach the stricken vessel, but the damage was so severe, and the silo kept leaking gas into the submarine, that her captain, Igor Britanov, ordered everyone but him to abandon ship and get into the tug, until the ship could no longer remain afloat and sank, the captain managing to abandon her just before she was lost beneath the waves.

The submarine was carrying 34 warheads in 17 missiles (the 18th silo had been welded shut after an earlier, eerily similar accident a few years back), where the explosion completely destroyed the missile inside silo 6, ejecting its warheads into the Atlantic, and the remaining 32 warheads were found missing after a soviet hydrographic research ship found the wreck in 1988, the silos having been found forced open, pointing to a successful recovery effort by the US government.

There is a book that covers this incident but I wonder.  Did we really steal recover those nukes?  If we (the United States) didn't then could it have been the Brits?  Italians?  Could the Russians have recovered them and this is just a bit of internet deception?

Regardless its some fascinating stuff.

The Cold War was a lot more dicey than anyone wants to admit.  We don't need a repeat.

Blast from the past....Amphibious Tank Type 3 “Ka-Chi”.

Pics via Bmashina Tumblr Page!

The Atomic Bomb saved lives on both sides of the war.  If the US and its allies actually invaded Japan, I wonder if that nation would actually exist today. The Japanese were massing their forces in a hopeless attempt to repel the allied assault and the entire population was mobilized to fight behind "every blade of grass".

It would have been a bloodbath from hell and I think we'd probably have come close to wiping out the entire Japanese race.  Everything I've read indicates that the resistance would have been so fanatical that we wouldn't have had any other choice.  As horrific as the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima was, it DID save lives on both sides.

Cobra Gold 2017 - AAVs on the beach...pics by Petty Officer 2nd Class Amanda Hayes

China's military, especially aviation, has reached near parity with the US...

via Business Insider.

"Western military technological superiority, once taken for granted, is increasingly challenged," Dr. John Chipman, Director-General and Chief Executive of IISS, said in a statement. "We now judge that in some capability areas, particularly in the air domain, China appears to be reaching near-parity with the West."
Instead of its usual practice of working on systems that imitate Soviet and Russian technology, China has shifted its efforts (and budget) to domestic research and development. Its Navy is currently working on three new advanced cruisers, 13 destroyers, and outfitting other ships with better radar.
But China's efforts on new aircraft have been the most effective.

Then this from the same article.

 China has its own stealthy J-20 and J-31 fighters, helped in part by stolen technical details of the F-22 and F-35, though it still seems to lack many of the capabilities of its US counterparts. But Beijing has made up for that in the development of a long-range air-to-air missile that has no western equivalent.
"Seen on exercise last year and estimated at near-six meters in length, this developmental missile likely has the task of engaging large high-value and non-maneuvering targets," Chapman said. "With a lofted trajectory, an engagement range around 300 kilometers would appear feasible."
That long range makes that kind of missile particularly deadly to aircraft that supports short range fighters, such as aerial tankers and AWACS, which provide an airborne radar platform.
Interestingly, the report notes, China's progress is "now the single most important driver for US defense developments."

Story here. 

I've been warning about the rising Dragon for years and everyone assumed that it was the shouting of a mad man.

Now think tanks have picked up on the truth.

We wasted too much time on the F-35.  It might succeed in only one area.  As a Harrier replacement.  For everything else it will be a complete and utter failure.  I will give General Davis and Marine Corps leadership credit for one thing.  Somehow they roped the USAF and Navy (to an extent) in selling their souls to provide the nation with a supersonic jump jet.  If I was only looking at Marine Corps requirements I'd be the planes biggest fan!

But its about more than the Marine Corps.

The security of the nation and the Western world is at stake.

If China has reached technological parity with the US then that means that they have also achieved regional superiority.  We have world wide commitments.  They're only focused on their backyard.

We MUST do better.  We MUST start making the hard choices.  If we don't reorient ourselves now and get on the right track then the Chinese will achieve perfect victory...winning without having to fight.

Sidenote:  We haven't even started talking about armor developments or the Chinese shipbuilding programs.  While we've wasted almost 20 years in the Middle East wasting lives and treasure our enemies have gotten stronger.  My worry?  With a national focus on Russia, China continues to strengthen, continues to get harder while we flounder.  We must refocus on the real threat in the Pacific...

Brahmos "Extended Range"...an almost 400 mile supersonic anti-ship missile!

via Live Fist.

Two major BrahMos tests coming this summer. Things kicks off in March with a long-awaited ‘extended range’ test of a 450km range variant of the supersonic cruise missile, the fastest in its class in the world. BrahMos, whose range was earlier limited by the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) has now been opened up beyond its 290km range to upwards of 450km. Livefist can confirm that an even longer range final ‘ER’ variant, out to 600km, will be tested next year. The BrahMos ER will be tested from an Army land launcher and will follow a protocol launch without any of the major maneouvers the missile is capable of.

Story here. 

We're gonna have to think about ship survivability.  What standard do we need to allow a ship to take a hit and stay in the fight?  Remember what the Exocet did to a Brit ship when it hit but didn't explode and the missile fuel did the job?  What will a missile doing Mach3 do to a modern warship on pure kinetic energy alone?

The next war at sea will be one for the ages.

Open Comment Post. Feb 19, 2017...a little housekeeping...

A little housekeeping gents...

1.  I setup these "open comment posts" so that the other blog topics can stay on target.  Don't cloud them up by posting the odd thing on them.  Keep the common areas clean!

2.  I'm seeing a slightly disturbing trend.  Commenters come from all over the world here and I'm damn proud of that fact.  English is often a second language so the grammar Nazi BS and demanding exactitude when its quite clear what they're trying to say is starting to grate.  If you don't understand what's being said in a comment then ask for clarification.  If you're being an ass then stop.

3.  News for the blog.  I'm communicating with the White House to try and become credentialed!  The military blog rumor mill says that the current Admin is extremely interested to reaching out beyond the traditional MSM.  I'm geeked.  That will open up doors you can't imagine.

Nothing Follows.  So what's on your mind?

Sunday Funny! USAF gets no love...

The Army, Navy and Marine Corps can't agree on anything...except making fun of the Air Force! 

F-18XT set to take a big bite out of the Navy F-35 order! President's chief of staff seen with Boeing brochure!

via DoD Buzz

President Donald Trump on Friday announced he’s considering a “big order” of advanced Super Hornet fighter jets designated F/A-18XT and made by Boeing Co.
“We are looking seriously at a big order,” he told the audience at Boeing’s South Carolina facility during the unveiling of the company’s 787 Dreamliner. “Do you care if we use the F-18 Super Hornets?”
The comments came less than a month after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ordered a review of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, a fourth-generation fighter, as a potential lower-cost alternative to the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter, the carrier version of a fifth-generation fighter made by Lockheed Martin Corp.
The remarks also came a day after Robert Harward, a retired vice admiral and former Navy SEAL who went on to become an executive at Lockheed, declined an offer to succeed Michael Flynn as national security adviser.
According to White House pool reports from the Trump event, Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, was spotted holding a brochure for the “F/A-18 XT.” The XT is the Advanced Super Hornet, or the Block III fighter jet concept for the Navy, a Boeing spokesman confirmed to Military.com.
“While Boeing demonstrated advanced Super Hornet capabilities in flight in 2013, the package of upgrades has evolved to best complement F-35, EA-18G and E-2D as they will be operating together in the air wing well into the 2040s,” Boeing said in a description of the XT/Block III aircraft.
Boeing developed the Block III jet concept to “address the strike fighter shortfall as well as to ensure the air wing has the capabilities needed to win in the 2020s and beyond,” the description said.
The new variant will feature an enhanced network capability to allow large amounts of data on and off the airplane, which would increase the ability to receive targeting information from aircraft like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, EA-18G Growler and the E-2D Hawkeye, according to Boeing.

Story here. 

Interesting.  Time to explore the "death spiral".  Remember the F-35C is the most EXPENSIVE version!

To keep the cost per airplane low, you need to build and sell a lot of planes. But if the plane in question is delayed or new planes needed immediately, governments cut orders to buy planes available now to fulfill that need. That pushes up the cost per plane, leading to more cancellations, pushing up the cost, leading to more cancellations. And so on.

We are inches away from the F-35C being the first version of the F-35 to be canned!

Sidenote:  Notice the emphasis for the Navy is on networking.  Remember Greenert...everything a sensor, everything a shooter....also remember his other mantra...payloads over platforms...the Super Hornet is perfectly placed to carry the load until the F/A-XX hits deck in a little over a decade!  Lockheed took too damn long and failed to have a corporate sense of urgency.  Now its too late!

Are we developing better ties with Russia on the sly?

De-confliction of air ops w/Russia continue. Today they conducted ops in vicinity of #Raqqah. So did @CJTF-OIR.

— OIR Spokesman (@OIRSpox) February 17, 2017

After seeing the above tweet about "deconflicting" the battlespace with Russia, I'm left wondering if we're not developing better ties with Russia on the sly.  During the Obama Admin we saw US and Russian fighters almost getting into furballs over Syria, now they seem to almost be on the verge of conducting joint operations.

What I find puzzling is that just yesterday Mattis talked about us NOT being able to work with Russia and then spokesman in the region releases this tweet?

Extremely curious.

Battle of Iwo Jima | 72nd Anniversary