F-35 propaganda critique..."how they want it to perform, but not how it performs today.”

via The American Conservative.

They call Washington a bubble. A la-la land. Home of the “Deep State.” A long-forgotten 1980’s television series, ‘Tales of the Darkside,’ once described “a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit” as our own world. Sounds a bit like Capitol Hill.

Nowhere was that more evident than yesterday, as defense industry giant Lockheed Martin hosted an auspiciously-timed reception on the Hill to tout its multi-billion dollar F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, which as anyone reading in this space would know has been more than 16 years in development, and plagued by everything from poor performance reviews and cost overruns, to grounding over a lack of spare parts and tussles over technical data and cybersecurity concerns.

Then there is the expense to the taxpayer, which as of June is projected to be more than $406 billion to complete, and another $1.4 trillion over the life of the program to be maintained. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said at the time there was a 60 percent increase in the cost estimates from 2001 to 2012 due to three major restructurings of the program. But the military kept building more planes—even delivering them to partner countries—throughout the development stage, even though operational testing has yet to begin, and won’t, until late-2018, at the soonest. That’s left the taxpayer with at least $1.7 billion in retrofitting costs as plans change and more technical bells and whistles are put onto the planes. Spare parts are in short supply, and the funds to retrofit all of the older prototypes aren’t readily available. Marine Corps Capt. Dan Grazier at the Project for Government Oversight (POGO) reported in October, that may leave some 108 planes behind as “concurrency orphans,” not fit for service, ever. At more than $100 million per plane (the military has so far built more than 250), that’s a lot of coin to be left idle in a hanger.

..........

 But what “we want” and what exists today are two different things. As Grazier pointed out to TAC, the planned event was an exercise in the former, a carefully designed artifice that emphasized the hoped-for outcomes of the most expensive program in U.S. military history, while downplaying the very real problems as momentary turbulence. Even the simulator, the flashy draw at the corner of the room, boasted capabilities that recent reviews have said the planes don’t have quite yet.

“It was a great sales pitch, it was interesting, it was neat sitting in the cockpit,” he said afterwards. “But it was a display of the brochure promises, not the finished design. It was how they want it to perform, but not how it performs today.”

Story here. 

Open Comment Post. Nov 18, 2017

Assault Amphibian School (Mini Documentary).... video by Sgt. Andrew Kuppers

New China TV - PLA Air Force Promo 2017

Yeah, these boys are starting to feel their oats.  The problem?  We're dealing with leadership of both parties that's more dysfunctional everyday, an economy that doesn't work for the average citizen, a society that is starting to wallow in depravity/no longer has the ability to differentiate between reality/fantasy and have allowed our citizenry to feel that the state owes them instead of them being well rounded productive people that contribute to the nation...not just demanding more and more (whether rights or benefits).

We have time but we must focus on the real threat and decide to immediately harden up in preparation for the big fight that is almost certainly coming.

Is this the "rationale" for Israel/Saudi action? US arming Hezbollah thru weapons donations to Lebanon?

via Free Beacon.

U.S. officials have become increasingly concerned that American military aid to the Lebanese army is arming the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah, which has been amassing a large cache of advanced arms on Israel's border, according to multiple current and former U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.

Following the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who fled the country and disclosed that Hezbollah controls the entirety of Lebanon, the U.S. government has continued its support for the Lebanese military, which multiple sources say has long been under the thumb of Hezbollah militants.

The ongoing policy is said to be fueling diplomatic tensions between the United States and Israel, which has found itself allied with Saudi Arabia as the American government advances a host of policies that have contributed to Iran's regional dominance, including in Iraq and Syria.

The Trump administration's State Department is coming under increased pressure from lawmakers and other foreign policy insiders to halt all military aid to Lebanon in light of Hariri's resignation and new evidence that Hezbollah is benefiting from the American arms and aid.

Story here. 

This whole thing is a freaking mess.

We supported moderate head choppers in Syria who were allied with ISIS against Hezbollah who was supporting Syria while at the same time we were arming the Lebanese govt that pushed those same weapons to  Hezbollah so that they could be used in the fight against moderate terrorists that we were supporting so that they could defeat Hezbollah that was supporting Syria???

Our foreign policy is batshit crazy.

Report to Congress on Chinese threat. "The United States cannot assume it will have an enduring advantage in developing next frontier military technology"

Chinese rail gun.  I didn't even know they were working on one!

via Free Beacon.

China is developing an array of advanced, high technology weapons designed to defeat the United States in a future conflict, according to a congressional commission report.

"China is pursuing a range of advanced weapons with disruptive military potential," says the annual report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The report outlines six types of advanced arms programs that Beijing has made a priority development in seeking "dominance" in the high-tech weapons area. They include maneuverable missile warheads, hypersonic weapons, laser and beam weapons, electromagnetic railguns, counterspace weapons, and artificial intelligence-directed robots.

China revealed two anti-ship ballistic missiles with maneuverable reentry vehicles in 2010 and 2015 and also has set up the sensors and satellites needed for striking moving targets at sea—weapons designed for use against U.S. aircraft carriers and other warships.

Beijing's hypersonic missiles are in the developmental stage but are "progressing rapidly," with seven hypersonic glide vehicle tests since 2014 and one reported scramjet engine flight test in 2015.

Story here. 

Read it and cringe. 

Do you still think Russia is the country we should worry about?  If you do then you're officially a sheeple.

China is the nation that poses an existential threat to the United States!

IDF Chief of Staff: “Saudi Arabia and Israel have common interests against Iran”

via Jerusalem Online.

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot commented during a rare interview with the Saudi newspaper Elaph on the possibility of a future war against Iran and Syria. During the interview, which was released today (Thursday), Eizenkot also said that Israel and Saudi Arabia share a common understanding when it comes to the threat from Iran. According to him, Israel is even ready to share sensitive intelligence with Riyadh. “Saudi Arabia and Israel have common interests against Iran,” he explained.

Story here.

Wow.  It is beyond strange.  Syria was once considered one of the US' best friends in the region and called a moderate Arab country.  Assad allowed us to hold terrorists on his soil and conduct "enhanced interrogations" there too (the same applied to Libya's Gaddafi).

Now after only a few years Syria is the huge threat?  A magazine even called Assad's wife the rose of the Middle East and touted her forward thinking and how Syria was modernizing and moving toward being much closer with the west!

Fast forward to the here and now and Israel and Saudi Arabia are both plotting to engage in a fight in Lebanon?  They're doing this because they have common interests against Iran?

Sorry boys but I'm done. 

I'm a supporter of Israel but this is making me run cold.  Enough of the games in the Middle East.  I view it as a serious money drain with little return.  I'm good with helping Israel defend itself but at what point do we wash our hands of the situation if they put themselves into a war of national survival and they're the ones that started it?

Don't answer that.  Just drink in this article and tell me we're not looking at another 20 plus years of war in the Middle east.

Open Comment Post. Nov 17, 2018

Older guy destroys youngster spoiling for a fight...

 

https://tacticalsquad.tumblr.com/post/167574926775

 


Wow.  I bet most of you guys didn't see that coming did ya?  So let's review and see what we've learned.

1.  Size up your opponent.  Young idiot just saw grey hair.  What he failed to see is that grey hair wearing guy was in serviceable condition (from what we could see).  He wouldn't be breathing hard just because he had a sudden rush of adrenalin in prep for a fight.

2.  Dress properly.  I'm talking about the sagging stupidity that the aggressor wore.  Why wearing your pants where they just come up halfway up your ass is a thing is beyond me.  Ignoring the idiocy of that fashion choice if you decide you're gonna fight then its beyond comprehension why you would dress that.  He immediately suffered limited mobility (assuming he had at the very least shadow boxed at home) and in the "walk in" to the encounter he even had to pause to pull up his pants.

3.  Patty cake isn't your friend.  I don't know what young-dumb was thinking but from my chair it appeared that he wasn't really prepared mentally or physically.  That patty cake stuff at the beginning of the fight just set him up for the knockout blow.

In short, you need to properly size up your opponent, dress everyday as if you might end up needing to defend yourself and finally if a fight can't be avoided you need to be prepared to engage and end it as quickly as possible.

I have no doubt old guy sized up young-dumb properly and knew that he could successfully engage him, and in the end he showed mercy.  Young-dumb was out cold on the street.  If he decided to do a finishing move by throat stomping him there is little young-dumb could do to prevent that.

Street fights.  Avoid if possible but if you can't then fight hard and fast and finish it quickly.

H145M Special Forces Light Attack Helicopter