Is the F-35 the "ultimate" failure?

via National Interest

The F-35 has now entered an unprecedented seventeenth year of continuing redesign, test deficiencies, fixes, schedule slippages, and cost overruns. And it’s still not at the finish line. Numerous missteps along the way—from the fact that the two competing contractors, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, submitted “flyoff” planes that were crude and undeveloped “technology demonstrators” rather than following the better practice of submitting fully functional prototypes, to concurrent acquisition malpractice that has prevented design flaws from being discovered until after production models were built—have led to where we are now. According to the latest annual report from the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E), 263 “high priority” performance and safety deficiencies remain unresolved and unaddressed, and the developmental tests—essentially, the laboratory tests—are far from complete. If they complete the tests, more deficiencies will surely be found that must be addressed before the plane can safely carry our Airmen and women into combat.

Despite this, the F-35 Joint Program Office now intends to call—quite arbitrarily—an end to the plane’s development phase and developmental testing. Instead of completing the presently planned development work, the Program Office is now proposing to substitute a vaguely defined F-35 upgrade program called “continuous capability development and delivery (C2D2).” The DOT&E report states flatly that this plan, as proposed, is “not executable due to inadequate test resources” in the rapid timelines proposed.

Story here. 

Urban ANTX18

You like Lasers? Railguns? Hypersonics? Forget that! 3d Printing will revolutionize the military!

via LinkdIn

A $4K house, 3D-printed in 24 hours

Nonprofit New Story teamed up with construction firm ICON to develop a 3D printer that can construct a four-room house in 12 to 24 hours. Human-built equivalent houses take between 13 to 20 days to build, making this tech a potential game changer for the 1.2 billion people who lack adequate shelter. The team plans to bring costs down from $10,000 to $4,000 per house and build 100 homes in El Salvador next year.

This.

This shit right here will change the way the military fights and no one is paying attention because it isn't "sexy".  By that I mean kinetic...or in layman's terms it doesn't go boom, swoosh in the sky or is tacticool on a Navy SEAL.

3d Printing if taken to an extreme will transform humanity.  The power of production in the hands of individuals?  Or groups of individuals?  Or organizations like the military?

We're talking about a power dynamic that could fundamentally change our economic system!

Pay attention to this.  I know it isn't the usual fare on this blog but I think this is the thing that will change all our lives.

Open Comment Post. March 20, 2018

A hard, terrible and uncomfortable TRUTH that we should finally starting talking about with regard to our Military...

Thanks to Noble for the link!

via Zero Hedge.

“As far as decision-making, it is a partnership,” he continued, stressing nonetheless that “at the end of the day it is about the protection of Israel – and if there is a question in regards to how we will operate, the last vote will probably go to Zvika [Brig.-Gen. Zvika Haimovitch, head of the IDF's Aerial Defense Division].”

Washington and Israel have signed an agreement which would see the US come to assist Israel with missile defense in times of war and, according to [Israeli commander] Haimovitch, "I am sure once the order comes we will find here US troops on the ground to be part of our deployment team to defend the State of Israel."

And those US troops who would be deployed to Israel, are prepared to die for the Jewish state, Clark said. "We are ready to commit to the defense of Israel anytime we get involved in a kinetic fight there is always the risk that there will be casualties. But we accept that - as every conflict we train for and enter, there is always that possibility," he said.

Story here. 

Zero Hedge and others are outraged by this statement.  The part where he talks about US troops being prepared to die for the Jewish state.

That was "inartfully" put but it gets down to the crux of our current defense posture.

This is what Forward Presence is all about!

Yeah you hear that term thrown around all the time.  It's even become a talking point to Congress...a chest thumping meme...something to brag about.

But the American people and many in uniform fail to take into account what that really means.

If you're in S. Korea, Japan, Australia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Israel, The Netherlands and many other countries, the powers that be have determined that they will roll the dice with your lives.

You are an instrument of foreign power and if you die while deployed to those nations you will be buried under the US flag but make no mistake about it (I'm talking about during combat operations) that you in essence died for other people.

It's been talked about on these pages before and it infuriated me.  They came at me sideways but at the end of the day the results are the same.  When we deploy to another country we are acting as THEIR soldiers.

Think about the situation in S. Korea.

There you have servicemembers AND their families....some of them within artillery range of a country that they're still at war with!  A reader from S. Korea proudly called our forces and their families hostages.

That sorry bastard was right.

But back to this story.

That AF General let the cat out of the bag.  We don't like to talk about it because it gets in the way of our flag waving but all these international entanglements have setup a situation where we do the bidding of others, for agendas that we don't understand to achieve solutions that we might not like.

Saying that our guys are prepared to die for another country is a bitter pill to swallow but unfortunately from my seat its more true than not.

Open Comment Post. March 19, 2018

The McCabe firing....many theories but everyone is forgetting one important fact.

I gotta touch on the McCabe firing.

Why?

Because while Trump dipped his toe in the murky water again with his insane tweets, there is something important that is going unsaid here.  Remember this bubba was part of the upper echelon of the FBI, the so called premier law enforcement organization in the US.

Let's dissect this thing.  First his supporters expressing outrage.

When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will  not destroy America...America will triumph over you. https://t.co/uKppoDbduj

— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) March 17, 2018

Analyze McCabe firing on two levels: the substance and the timing. We don’t know enough about the substance yet. The timing appears cruel and a cave that compromised DOJ independence to please an increasingly erratic President who should’ve played no role here. This is dangerous

— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) March 17, 2018

Read more here.

Next we cover not McCabe's defense but what renowned Constitutional Lawyer Turley said about it...

The McCabe controversy could also make life tougher for special counsel Robert Mueller. While McCabe lashed out at Trump in his statement, he may have just given Trump the long-sought cover to use his pardon power. If McCabe is not charged, Trump could cite that decision as the basis for pardoning Flynn, as a matter of equity and fairness.

More generally, the apparent conduct of both McCabe and Comey have fulfilled the narrative long advanced by Trump of a biased and unprincipled FBI investigation. Given Trump’s ill-advised inclination to fire Mueller in the past, these allegations of leaks and misrepresentations inside the FBI could rekindle Trump’s interest in forcing an end to the investigation that has dogged his administration for a year.

Story here. 

But ya know what has me spinning?

The Inspector General of the FBI recommended the dude be fired!  Somehow that has been forgotten or ignored.

The FBI’s Office of Personal Responsibility has recommended the firing of former deputy director Andrew McCabe, who is accused of serious misconduct.

The recommendation apparently resulted from a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general, which found that McCabe leaked sensitive details about the FBI’s investigation of the Clinton Foundation to a Wall Street Journal reporter and then lied about it to the IG’s office.

Story here. 

We're already in a constitutional crisis folks.

Parts of our Govt and Media are acting in their own interests to their own ends.

Additionally I think we're seeing a massive psyops campaign being waged.  At one time I thought it was being directed at the President himself but now?  Now I believe that its aimed at the American people.

The goal?  Desired end state?

I have no idea.

But I believe that we're watching the bouncing ball instead of the guy with the mask and the handgun running across the room.

In short we're being distracted with these power plays.  McCabe was recommended for firing because he was less than forthcoming about leaking a story to the Wall Street Journal (that alone deserves further examination...why would he leak to the WSJ about the Clinton Foundation...we look at these media sources as being liberal or conservative but what if they're neither...what if they're simply conduits for the govt to put info out?) yet the Director of the FBI was golden even though he leaked to the media too?

I thought the battlefield in Syria was chaotic.

The Washington DC battlefield is even more confused the only saving grace is no bodies...at least not yet.

German AF Chief fired for supporting F-35. Ordinarily I'd cheer but should we?

Thanks to Super Rhino for the link!

via IHS Janes.

The Chief of the Luftwaffe is to leave his position in large part due to his support for a German procurement of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), Jane’s has learned.

Lieutenant General Karl Müllner will leave his position by the end of May, with the news of his retirement breaking just two days after Germany’s defence secretary, Ursula von der Leyen, was sworn in for another term.

Jane’s understands that Gen Müllner’s outspoken public support for the JSF as a successor to the German Tornado fleet was pivotal in the decision for his early retirement. “The Luftwaffe considers the F-35’s capability as the benchmark for the selection process for the Tornado replacement, and I think I have expressed myself clearly enough as to what the favourite of the air force is,” Gen Müllner told Jane’s and other media in November 2017.

The Chief of the Luftwaffe’s active support of the JSF clashes with current Ministry of Defence planning, which prefers a successor solution involving the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Mixed feelings.

I want solid recommendations to civilian leadership but the F-35 has caused flag officers to act badly.

Past behavior of others makes me want to cheer this move but I wonder if I should.

A tainted program has made everything suspect.  What if this is really his best recommendation?  Of course the other side is at play too.  What if the guy is bought and paid for and we'll see him on the board of some defense firm soon?

Coxswain Course...Plus why not adopt the CB90 to revitalize our Boat Company?

Interesting and informative little vid.

But I have a question.  If we're gonna be launching from further out and if we're looking at defenses that might challenge our vaunted air power yet AAV/ACV/LCAC are too slow then why aren't we taking a page from our allies and imagining doing this a different way?

Rubber boats are for clandestine operations.  Preferably by sub that allows a small team to get ashore.  If we're gonna insert a Company Landing Team and if they're part of the A2AD fight then we need something larger, faster, capable of supporting fire on the beach and of course having longer legs.

I'm talking about the CB90 for USMC service.

It would revitalize Boat Company in whole new ways.  Raids using CB90s would make them a definite possibility instead of a capability that we rarely use today.

The CB90 would extend the reach of the MEU to well beyond the horizon and further.  Plus Marines would suffer the jarring or the cold that they face today. In other words they'd arrive fresher for the fight.

If it doesn't work?

Riverine has new boats, but more than likely they would get gobbled up by SEALs or even Rangers (I can especially see Rangers taking these boats if the Marine Corps experiment failed because of either WANTING it to fail or some real flaw being found).

In other words this isn't a boat that we would buy and have to figure out how to use it.  Its tailored to the mission of inserting troops.  The USMC could certainly use that with the concepts being tossed around.

Open Comment Post. March 18, 2018